00:51
by Anotherjaneway
Summary: Dixie's day off incites a riot of rescuing. A high angle recovery tries Roy and Johnny's penultimate paramedic skills.


This is a text version of the original still airing imaged, music soundtracked story.

Emergency Theater Live, Episode Fifteen

15. 00:51 Season Two - Episode 15 Short summary-  
Dixie's day off incites a riot of rescuing. A high angle recovery tries Roy and Johnny's penultimate paramedic skills.

****WARNING**** The long summary to come is very story spoiling and will take away plot surprises if you read it now before reading the longer story below it.

Decide now if you want to read this episode's detailed summary before doing so.

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Long Summary-  
Dixie is enjoying her day off as best as she can while nursing a cold.  
While sun bathing, she witnesses and responds to a pool diving accident and begins CPR after getting kids to help her rescue the teenaged boy.  
Roy and Johnny respond to the call and perform an emergency needle crich to establish an airway. Afterwards, Dixie faints and falls into the pool. She is rescued physically from danger but then refuses all emergency care despite her illness's symptoms. A dispute mounts and a police officer has to enforce a legal peace between everyone, citing Dixie's rights as a fully cognizant citizen. Joe Early, Kelly Brackett and the gang all work together to try and come up with a scheme to get Dixie to come in and get checked out by a doctor.  
Station 51 responds to a roller coaster accident and tangles with a cloud of bees. Later that night, Dixie makes an emergency phone call to the firehouse but collapses before saying anything. Roy and Stoker get a funny feeling and Roy asks for a silent code response to Dixie's house. Morton takes over the call when Dixie's found on the floor, unconscious. Joe and Brackett operate and repair her inflamed intestines following an appendectomy.

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The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Fifteen..

00:51 Debut Launch: 1 October 2004.

****************************************************** From : Cory Anda Sent : Monday, October 4, 2004 1:40 AM Subject : Dixie's Day Off...

Dixie McCall stretched languidly on her raft just soaking in the southern Californian sunshine. ::It's just been far...too... long:  
she sighed, listening to the birds nearby playing in her apartment complex's birdbath. Max, the caretaker's cat, seemed to agree with her, stretching a single paw down from his perch on the poolside lifeguard chair.

Children's laughter rang like belltones in her ears as she dozed under her sunhat and occasionally, the yips of the excited dogs watching the other tenants sharing the same pool, splashed and played on the sidelines. Sighing, Dixie let the sun fry out her aches, one by one. ::If I ever work another double shift like the one I had last night, may monkeys fly out of my butt.:: she thought. "Ohhh, I hate head colds." Dixie sniffed, ignoring yet another tickle running down her throat. She shifted on her inflatable, easing a sudden gut cramp.  
The tired nurse let the noonish summer's day work its magic, and ignored it. "Guess what, Kel?" she mumbled to herself, still quite alone on her side of the pool. "I'm cancelling dinner plans. This day is gonna be just ..for......ZZzzzzz...zzz.."

The lulling waves returned her to a state of blissful somnolence.

Dixie didn't know how long she had drifted, when an uneasy pup's whine sliced through her dreams. McCall made a face.

Then the kids started screaming. Dixie shot up onto her hands, blinking in the torrid sun's glare, her eyes tearing. She cast her head about towards the frightened children, shouting in alarm. "What's the problem here?!"

One petrified boy pointed to someplace behind Dixie. McCall turned.  
One of the Miller dogs was still whining, standing rigid on a second floating rubber raft, looking at something down under the water.

Dixie saw a wavering form shimmer, sprouting legs and motionless, drifting arms.

"Mr. Miller!" she gasped, twisting off the raft. Dixie swam as fast as she could across the pool, shouting as she went, "Call the Fire Department Rescue Squad! My patio door's open!"  
she told the children. One of the oldest started running for the phone.

Dixie plunged into the pool's depths, opening her eyes. It was deep at that end and Gerald Miller was no tiny teenager when she finally reached him and started hauling his spasming lanky body to the surface. She kicked through a plume of red.  
::He's hit his head?:: McCall analyzed.

The side cramp biting her earlier made a comeback. Dixie grunted bubbles, cursing. But then her hand caught the edge of the pool's rim and her chin broke into the air. The stench of chlorine poured into Dixie's stuffy nose and she opened her mouth,  
spitting out luke warm water.

"Is my brother ok?" asked a tiny blond girl in active horror.

Dixie threw an arm over Ger's shoulder and rolled his slack face out of the water, taking care to not jar his spine. The teenager was unconscious now and he fountained water out his nose and mouth when she turned him. ::Drowning.:: she thought. Holding him still, the nurse beckoned to the kids.  
"Push something over to me!" she ordered, treading water. "I need a support surface to lie him on. Even a lounger will work."

But the chairs along the sunning area were chained to the fence.  
Dixie swore. "There! Use that." and she jerked her head towards the blue raft from which the frantic dog was barking.

Two young boys leaped in and shoved it close.

Dixie managed to get it floating perpendicular under Ger's chest with his head splinted level in both her hands.  
She didn't bother to drain him further and started right in with a breath attempt. Ger gurgled, but his chest rose.

McCall's fingers found the groove in his neck.  
::Sh*t. His pulse's almost gone.:: Dixie kept holding the teenager's head in alignment around her jaw thrust.  
She lifted rushing eyes to the panicking children surrounding her."Kids, we gotta get him out. Now. Remember how to do that? Like I showed ya in kidscouts.. We're gonna make a ramp out of the pump pipe cover by the shed. All right? Go get it! I gotta keep helping him." she said, blowing another breath through the suffocating man's chest water.

Ger's color had grayed before her eyes by the time they got back. "No, Ger. Keep fighting!" Dixie hissed into his ear as she pushed air into his lungs.

The oldest boy ran back outside."The operator said that they're on their way! I got through!"

"Terrific.." McCall grinned up at him.  
She used the other children swimming around her to keep Miller's head and back unjostled.

Between the five of them, the slippery teen slid off the long piece of plastic onto the deck quickly. "Watch his head. Don't move his neck around..." Dixie told the older ones.

"He's bleeding!" cried the youngest.

"It's not real bad. Head cuts are just messy." Dixie said automatically.

"His neck beat's gone! His neck beat's gone!" shouted Ger's brother, knowing enough to check.

"I know. He's just gone out. Don't be scared. Now. He'll need that CPR stuff I taught you all, so girls, dry him off your beach towels, especially around his chest. Then nest them about him to soak up all of this water." Dixie said rapidly, thinking ahead for future defibrillating.

Hauling on a rope of floats, McCall flung herself out of the pool. She scrambled over to the teen's head and reopened an airway by lifting his jaw bone. "Michael, now take over here. Hold his chin just like this when you give your breaths, ok? Move nothing else. I'll start here." Dixie told the boy, beginning compressions. "Don't be alarmed if water squirts out after a bit. Let it come. The more of it, the better."

Dixie's cramp was a vice now, and her nose ran, so she lifted one leg and crouched on her right foot to ease it. Already,  
McCall was sweating and beads of it stung her eyes. She glanced up as Ger's brother delivered another breath mouth to nose. "That's fine, Mike. Give those a little deeper. Keep going. Good job." McCall panted, keeping up her CPR.

After each pulse check, Dixie lifted her head toward the veranda's main gate listening acutely for the sound of sirens.

* * *

Photo : Dixie on a pool raft, sunning with a hat over her eyes.

Photo : Birdbath full of bluebirds.

Photo : Panicking kids at a pool's edge.

Photo : A dog on a raft seeing a submersed victim.

Photo : A sunny apartment poolside with palms.

Photo : Dixie, talking urgently.

*  
From: "Roxy Dee" Date: Thu Oct 7, 2004 8:32 pm Subject: The Narrow Path..

Dixie McCall reached down yet again to the drowned teenager's throat after another long minute. Her chilled fingers found a thready carotid. "Michael! Trade places with me. He's got a pulse.  
Hold his head still, in between your knees, as I keep ventilating him." she requested, keeping in line stabilization with her hold on his airway. "Keep talking to him, hon. He's in trouble but he can still hear us."

Stuttering nervously, Michael leaned down to his brother's ear.  
"Ger. I promise I won't tell anyone what you did in the house. Just wake up, ok? Dad's gonna be so mad you jumped head first into the shallow end like we're not supposed to."

McCall looked up at the nine year old, about to ask him what that house comment had meant, when the wail of sirens and squealing tires heralded a paramedic squad's arrival.

It was 51's.

"Johnny! Roy! Non-breathing, but with a pulse now! He was under, I'm guessing,.. less than two minutes."

DeSoto and Gage flew into the yard, 02 tank clattering, with a police officer in tow, lugging the defibrillator and a backboard.

"Officer, set those by his head." Johnny ordered. Then he wrapped a thick cervical collar around Ger's neck without getting in the way of Dixie's mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Roy moved immediately to kick the drying blankets the children had used out of the way. "Dixie? We thought the address was familiar."

"Sorry for scaring you fellas but this was pressing.." she replied,  
delivering another breath to the boy carefully.

Johnny felt the teen's distended stomach. "This getting in the way?"

"More and more."

Gage got busy setting up the demand valve to take over for the nearly exhausted nurse.

Roy finished hooking up the EKG monitor and he put the defibrillator on charged standby. Then he set up the biophone's antennae and began a hail. "Rampart, this is Rescue 5..1.."

##Go ahead, 51## answered Brackett over the line.

"Rampart, we have a male approximately fourteen years of age. Victim of an apparent diving accident."

Dix waggled her head in agreement at Roy's guess at mechanism of injury as she accepted the positive pressure mask from Gage and began using it.

Johnny flung open the I.V. box and grabbed out what he needed rapidly.

Roy continued his report. "...He's been under active resuscitation, non-breathing now, but with a regained pulse following CPR. He's on 15 liters of assisted O2.  
Spinal precautions have been taken. Please stand by for the vital signs." He set the phone onto his shoulder as he tore pieces of IV tape off a dipenser to stick in rows onto his leg.

##Standing by, 51.##

McCall rattled off Ger's pulse and its quality, and his consciousness level."120 and thready. No reaction to pain. Pupils, reactive, but sluggish."

DeSoto nodded, getting a quick B/P while Johnny did a rapid head to toe survey after listening to the boy's breath sounds via scope. "I'm getting rales bilaterally." he said.

"He took in a lot of water.." Dixie confirmed catching her breath back as she used the ventilator on their patient.

Gage went on. "Negative Babinski's." he said after he ran a pair of forceps points up the bottom's of both of the teenager's feet.

Dixie sighed in relief. "One point in his favor.."

Gage rewrapped the stethoscope around his neck. He peered at the blood oozing from the boy's temple. "This looks minor. There's no depression." Then he looked for cerebral spinal fluid out the ears and nose.  
"No CSF, Roy."

"Ok, Johnny. Better call out for the engine. His B/P's sixty over P."

Gage jerked his head in affirmation and grabbed his walkie talkie. "L.A., This is Squad 51."

##Squad 51.##

"Respond Engine 51 for medical assistance to our location."

## 10-4, Squad 51. Time out, 12:51.##

Everyone ignored the broadcast tones over the frequency, double echoed through the squad's Motorola Converta-com and the HT as Captain Stanley acknowledged the run and gave an ETA.

Dixie felt a wave of fatigue. "Johnny, I'm tired." she shivered. "I gotta give it up."

"All right." Gage said, eyeing her up, a little self conscious because of Dixie's skimpy made-for-the-sun, two piece bikini. "Rescuing's hard work. Why don't you..uh,, wrap up, sit down and rest a while. We got it."

The motorcop smoothly took over teenager's mechanical ventilations.

Dixie barely felt the kids throw a flannel quilt over her shoulders, offering her their gratitude with timid pats and hugs as she parked on a lounger by the edge of the swimming pool. McCall shook her head, thinking out loud. Then she snapped her fingers. " Amy Miller, can you go get that consent form your mother's got hanging on the frig? These firemen are gonna need it to give Ger some medication."

"Ok, Dixie. I'll be right back, Ger!" cried the tiny child before she ran off.

DeSoto got his first orders.

##51, Start an I.V. Normal Saline with an insulin drip. I'm gonna assume he was coding longer than two minutes. I want to terminate any catecholamine release effects before they complicate things for us.  
Go ahead and administer 1.0 mg Lidocaine IV push to control any intracranial pressure he might have from that possible head injury. Prepare to insert an esophageal airway and send me a strip. Add 1 mg Sodium Bicarb,  
then turn his drip to TKO. Let me know when you've secured your airway. ##

"10-4, Rampart. I.V. Normal Saline with insulin, Lidocaine and Sodium Bicarb. This'll be lead 2."

The reassuring sound of the Ward Pumper's deeper siren grew then fell away with the bark of her airhorn.

##L.A. Engine 51's on scene.## came Stoker's transmission.

##10-4, Engine 51. Time is 12:55.## replied L.A. Dispatch.

The pool kids, except Michael, went running to fetch the other firemen to show them the way.

Roy lifted his HT. "Cap, we'll need all hands and the spare O2. Active resus."

##10-4, HT 51.##

Ger suddenly started to seize and his stomach rippled.

Gage startled. "Is he vomiting?" he asked the police man, with his hands full of supplies.

"No, there's nothing here yet. ....But.."

"But what?" Roy asked, impatient.

"I..don't think I'm getting a chest rise anymore.." the officer admitted. "Just started happening."

"D*mn!" Johnny swore, feeling Gerald's throat for the beat and double checking the jaw lift. "Try another vent again."

The cop triggered the thumb button. Despite a tight seal over skin, the demand valve failed to accomplish a finished breath. The officer shook his head. "See? Just like I told ya."

Johnny flew into action. "Roy, ask for a nasogastric tube. He's really blocked and in a convulsion from hypoxia. His gums are blue. I wanna drain that distention now."

Roy hurried and updated Dr. Brackett about the new developments.

## I confirm rising tachycardia on the scope, 51.  
Relieve that intragastric pressure with an NG tube and watch for signs of an obstructed airway#  
Kel snapped crisply.

Working together, Roy and Johnny inserted a well lubricated catheter into the teen's unbloodied nostril and got it down past a sudden odd resistance.  
Frothy pink emesis welled out of the tube's end and onto the concrete in a noisy involuntary belch. Then Ger's bulging stomach fell flatter than it had been.

"Ok, try him now." Gage told the policeman as he quickly drew the tube back out again and suctioned out the boy's nose and mouth. Difficult breaths went in.

Stoker, Chet and Lopez immediately knew what to do at a mere glance of the area. They shifted the backboard until it lay flush with Ger's back as Johnny and Roy log rolled him onto his side for more active suctioning. Swiftly, the head block, chest, waist and leg straps were settled and tightened into place.

Leaning down, Johnny examined the stain on the pavement.  
It was sweet smelling. "Roy, he's been drinking...." he said flatly, not happy.

DeSoto's face tightened. "He's just a kid."

"I know."

Roy picked up the phone again. "Rampart, we've positive evidence of ETOH ingestion."

Brackett returned a long sigh of resignation and sadness. ##10-4, Roy. Then we're all the better for that insulin drip counteracting things."

Roy had the advanced airway prepped and gelled. "I'm gonna need one of you for a Sellick's maneuver."  
he told the gang.

"Me." Marco volunteered and he peeled off his coat and gloves and kneeled down.

DeSoto had foregone the EOA for an endotracheal tube.  
"Stoker, why don't you take over on the O2? Thanks,  
Officer Palmer.." he read from the man's name tag.

"No problem." The officer stood back to begin his incident report, allowing the more experienced firefighter engineer to take over the task.

* * *

Hank noticed Dixie McCall bundled up on her chair.  
"So much for the day off, eh?" he grinned for her benefit.  
"Nothing like a little excitement to liven up an afternoon."

Dixie just coughed at Stanley's encouraging humor while avoiding the bright sun beating down on her from his direction.

She felt a glove on her shoulder that made her jump.

"You ok there, Dixie?" Cap asked. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

Dixie afforded the helmeted captain a smile. "I'm fine. Just a little worried."

"About what?"

"About him." she gestured with her head.  
"If we can't get that airway in......"

* * *

A weak, choking jolt upset Roy's positioned laryngoscope and the paramedic yanked it out to prevent a sudden mouth injury. "Marco, keep up that cricoid pressure, whatever you do. Johnny!"

"I'm on it! Rampart, our victim's seizures are worsening. So's his color."

##Have you established that ET tube yet?##

"That's negative, doc. We're experiencing some jaw clenching." Johnny sighed in frustration.

##Knock him out, 51, for a rapid sequence induction.  
Point one mg's of Vecuronium IV push. That'll paralyze him enough for you to get one inserted. Know that you'll be completely responsible afterwards for maintaining his airway with adequate ventilations.##

Roy, next to Johnny, gulped.

"10-- uh, 10-4, Rampart." Gage affirmed. "RSI with .1 mg's Vecuronium IVP."

Stoker spoke up suddenly. "Gage! Laryngospasm!  
I'm getting in nothing now."

"What?!" Johnny felt around Marco's Sellick hold. He felt a foreboding rock stiff hardness surrounding Ger's adam's apple. "Roy, ...positive on that... Obstruction's total!"

"Rampart, standby... We've a fully obstructed airway."  
DeSoto dropped the phone.

##Push the Vecuronium, now! Double it if you have to#  
commanded Kel. ## The increase may help your clearing attempts..##

Johnny straddled the dripping immobilized teen while Kelly hastily undid just the abdominal straps of the longboard, allowing Gage access to Ger's lower abdomen. The paramedic delivered four sharp upward thrusts under the teenager's diaphragm with both hands while Stoker and Chet pinned the boy's head and neck still.

Roy sent the muscle paralyzer into Ger's high flowing I.V. and hung it dangling on the fence. "It's in. Is it working?"  
he looked to Mike Stoker.

The engineer shook his head and demonstrated the 02 gushing out around the mask quickly with some triggering.

Johnny tried a few more abdominal thrusts. Then he scrambled to Ger's head with a long shafted pair of Magil forceps in his teeth. He used a jaw screw to open the shaking teen's mouth to get at the deeper part of his throat. The lengthy, scissors like instrument was guided down, but stopped short only along half its usable length.  
Gage grimaced as he probed, biting onto a pen light so he could see what he was doing. "There's nothing here, Roy. I'm not seeing any vocal cords. It's gotta be just a laryngospasm. These aren't threading down."  
he said of his Magil forceps.

DeSoto nodded, licking dry lips. "Second dose then,  
ready?"

Gage nodded, backing off so Stoker could use the demand valve yet again.

Roy injected a small orange labelled syringe into the rubber intravenous delivery port deftly. "It's in!"

Stoker and Johnny struggled to offset the teenager's cyanosis with some chest rise, but they were unsuccessful, no matter what they thought to try.

* * *

In the base station, Brackett eyed the running EKG strip and became ansy. He had to force himself not to interrupt his hard-at-work men just for an update.

* * *

A dragging minute passed under the firemen's sweaty exertions. Then Stoker detected a relaxing jaw. "He's loose.." and then he started to force as many feebly reaching ventilations as he could into the boy's lungs. He kept it up until the ominous dark blue began to fade from Ger's face and lower extremities.

Johnny snatched up the abandoned endotracheal tube that Roy had left on the teenager's chest and said,  
"Hyperventilate him a minute more, Mike. Then move aside."

Stoker nodded.

Roy lifted the phone. "Rampart, our victim's still partially obstructed and we can't find what it is.  
The paralytic agent's beginning to work, but we're getting vents into him only with difficulty. Johnny's attempting another intubation. Both the boy's work of breathing and his seizures, are now absent." Roy reported, seeing a quiet, fully drugged stillness, settle over his patient.

Kel let out the breath he was holding. ##Avoid any stimulus that'll trigger V-fib. He's sensitive to that now.##

Gage accidently poked the back of Ger's soft palate with the ET tube as he was visualizing for his vocal cords.

Roy's head shot up when the EKG monitor warbled an arrythmia alarm. "Brady! Back off, Johnny!"

Gage froze and yanked out the tube, digging for a carotid artery in the boy's neck with his other hand.  
"...Stupid! ..I'm ...stupid...." he grunted.

DeSoto flew to the open drug case when the boy's cardiac rate continued to sink into the forties. "Rampart!"

## I see it, 51. Point five milligrams Atropine. Speed him back up again. What I'm seeing here, is vaso vagal in origin. It's not an adverse Vecuronium reaction.##

The betablocker soon boosted Ger's heartrate back up into the low, irregular seventies. Everyone sighed in relief.

## D/C trying the endotrach. I'm authorizing an immediate needle cricothyrotomy.## Brackett went on..

Gage tossed the ET tube aside.

##....Set up your supplies. Have your head man keep hyperventilating your victim as best he can. Roy, you've told me in the past that you've done one of these before ..in Nam. You've got the ball once again.##

"10-4, Rampart." Roy replied back, wiping sweat off his lip.

Johnny was a pure professional. He wasn't offended in the least for being asked to step down during a primary treatment action. He wanted a resolution to the problem too badly to even care. He un-papered an adapter to a 7.5 mm sized ET tube, a 10 ml syringe, and a 14 gauge needle catheter.

Reaching down, he slid a finger on a free hand over the hard thyroid cartilage running down the midline of Ger's throat until he found the soft depression of the cricoid membrane. "Ok,  
Marco. Keep his trachea from moving around and put one fingertip,.....here.." And he guided Marco's index finger to a precise spot on the teenager's sweaty skin. "Mark that landmark and don't lose it.."

"Believe me, I won't..." Lopez admitted eagerly.

"Ok, Roy. We're ready for you." Johnny said looking up, screwing together the puncture lancet."Lopez has got the trachea splinted." Then Gage handed the whole rigging over to his much calmer partner.

DeSoto spoke. "Johnny, could you draw up a mil of water into the syringe for me, please? I gotta trick I like to use."

Johnny nodded. "Stoker, is he adequately oxygenated yet?"  
he said, filling Roy's needle with a pull of its plunger into another unused, sterile IV bag.

"As best as he's able. His pupils are still reacting but he's a little too cold now to judge by his color."

Gage fitted the syringe back into place into the guiding shaft, curious as to what purpose Roy was going to use it for. ::Not for med absorption into the lungs, Kel hasn't ordered any ET drugs yet.:: he thought.

DeSoto took over pressing a finger on the landmark Marco was guarding. Then he moved his fingertip just enough to place the point of the needle directly over the membrane he could feel. He angled the syringe, end down at a forty five towards Ger's feet, and advanced the needle into the skin, all the while aspirating the plunger upwards with his pinky and ring fingers. He stopped instantly when the upward welling suctioning drew up pearling air bubbles.  
He smiled. "I'm in the trachea.." he announced.

Roy slid a 3mm endo tube catheter inside the syringe and threaded it until it was well into the air passage below,  
angled downwards. He withdrew the long needle, passing it off to Cap to dispose of into the sharps bin.

Johnny flew into action once again. "Ah, now I see what the water was for.." he said, listening to the teen's chest as DeSoto fitted the ET adapter's syringe and catheter's end onto a high flow oxygen circulating ambu bag. "A better visual."

"Yep." DeSoto blinked.

Lopez helped Roy tape the inserted tenuous airway to Ger's throat amply and then he took sole charge of stabilizing it with both hands so that it didn't budge a single centimeter out of place.

"You're pure cement, Marco." Gage ordered.

"Solid, man. This is going nowhere." he said, watching Stoker rapidly make up for lost ventilating time. "How's he doing now?" the hispanic fireman asked, marveling at the heavy bag's ability to work through such a slender tube.

Johnny took the listening ports of the stethoscope out of his ears. "He's got minimal chest rise. But it's enough to keep him alive until we get to the hospital. Nice work, pal." he grinned. "Thanks everyone."

"Mike, I'll break you." Roy said. "I know just how to get the most inside without distension happening.  
It's a narrow band force of pressure with this sized catheter.  
It's just like a newborn's.."

"I'll learn it for next time.." said Stoker as he traded places with DeSoto.

Johnny picked up the phone. "Rampart, we have an airway.."

##Congratulations, guys. Now get him in here. I want a vitals set every five minutes in route. Keep vigilant for good or bad lung sounds, any sign of expanding hematomas, or subcutaneous air under the skin. ##

"10-4. We're on our way, Rampart. The ambulance has just arrived.." Gage said with a smile.

That smile fell away when Dixie McCall suddenly sagged backwards from where she was seated out of her blanket.  
She tumbled limply into the pool when Hank Stanley failed to catch her in time. "Dixie?!" Johnny yelled.

* * *

Photos : None.

*  
From : patti keiper Sent : Thursday, October 7, 2004 8:44 PM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] The A.M.A. Cap started to get out of his turnout and helmet to go after her when Gage shouted. "I got her!" He swan dived into the shallows.

Very quickly, Dixie McCall was conveyed to the surface and to the edge by many hands. She was lifted up, set onto the ground and rolled onto her back.

"Dix?" Johnny shook her firmly, monitoring her carotid.  
He wiped streaming water away from her nose and mouth as she began coughing and moaning.

McCall was almost as white as her alabaster swimsuit.

"She's ok.." Gage told the others. Stoker jogged over with the engine's O2 apparatus. "I think this's just an episode of syncope, she's waking up already." he said. "Let's move her to one of those chairs and get her wrapped up before you start her on that Mike."

Roy looked up from where he and Marco were still watching and working on Ger. "Johnny?! What's the problem?"

"I don't know yet!" he shouted, letting Stoker, Cap and Kelly transfer Dixie from the concrete to a head raised sunchair. "Let me check her out."  
he coughed. "Keep packaging him for transport.  
I'll call a second ambulance for her if I have to."

Cap reaffirmed Johnny's plan, setting an oxygen mask over McCall's nose and mouth. "That's gonna be the call." He waved on Stoker to notify L.A. of their need for an additional Mayfair or Cadillac. "I don't like her breathing rate. It's labored."

"Umm hmm, something's definitely going on here.." Johnny agreed. "Dix, can you hear me?"

She didn't answer past a few groans.

Chet Kelly continued to try to get a legible verbal response out of the nurse while Johnny got a B/P off her arm.

The children were scared but they stayed out of the way, remaining maturely silent.

Gage saw that Roy was ready to go. "You keep the biophone."

"She stable?"

"Yeah. Her B/P's no longer low. Take Marco with you for that airway support. Kelly can follow me in the squad later after the other ambulance gets here."

Roy was a bulldog. "Use a landline, ok? The kids can bring out a phone to you for you to use for her." DeSoto said, shuffling along behind the gurney leading attendants, carrying the defibrillator and the drug box.

"I know. I know.. Just go already. The sooner you leave,  
the sooner I'll find out some answers on her. Don't worry...I'll contact ya on HT as soon as I find out anything."  
Gage grumbled.

"No, I'll do that.." Cap promised.

"All right." Roy replied, waving the ambulance men on again. "I'm going..."

Johnny paid no more attention to him as Ger was carted off Code Three to Rampart Hospital.

-  
Cap and Johnny turned back from watching Roy hustle away to find Chet inexplicably armed with a mug of steaming coffee, which he was waving underneath Dixie's nose near the O2 mask on blow by so that she could smell it.

Dixie sputtered, shifting her head from side to side.

"Kelly, cut that out this instant!" Hank boomed.

Gage gave out an exasperated shout of mild disgust and he grabbed the cup away from Kelly. "Chet, would you knock it off!? Where did you get such a crazy idea in the first place?!" he demanded, gently replacing the mask as McCall's eyes fluttered open.

"From them.." Chet shrugged.

"Yeah," said the oldest child standing nearby. "It was my idea.  
We do this coffee trick all the time when Miss McCall won't wake up after sunbathing. She told us to so she wouldn't ever be late for work."

"Well kids, I hate to break it to ya, but today is Dixie's DAY ..OFF!  
Thanks for all your help. We got it from here. Now, sCRAMMM!"  
Gage exploded.

The children, all three dogs,..and the caretaker's cat, took fright and all of them ran away as fast as they could with screams, barks and a yowl.

"That wasn't very smart." Hank interjected when the noise died away.

"Huh?" Gage double taked. "Why not? They're out of our hair..Unlike some people.." he glared at Chet.

"We don't have our outside phone yet, you twit." Cap said, smacking Johnny lightly on the back of the head for emphasis on the word, "twit."

"I'll get it." said Stoker. "I think I remember a phone being in the pool party hut from last year. It most likely has a cord on it long enough to reach us.."

Johnny didn't even hear him. "I'm not the twit. Chet's the twit.. Geesh,  
Cap. Think about it. Reviving someone with coffee fumes? Now I've seen it all." He kept glaring at Kelly. "Just what were you thinking?"  
he asked Chet sarcastically.

"It worked, didn't it? She's almost speaking." Chet countered.  
"At least java's kinder on the old nostrils than an ammonia capsule.  
I should know. You've used enough of em on me as the Phantom in the middle of the night when I was still sleeping..."

Hank just rolled his eyes and asked L.A. for the ETA on Dixie's ambulance.

"No...ambulance.." coughed Dixie, sitting a little straighter in her chair. A flush of growing embarrassment was staining her cheeks and erasing all of her remaining questionable clinical signs red tagging problems. "I'm......fine, fellas. Really!" she protested, peeling off her oxygen firmly. 'I'm awake, I'm aware.. I know who I am, where I am and what happened....I'm not going anywhere.." she hissed with a little of her normal heavy guns tone. "If I see that hospital one more time this week, I'll rip all my hair out for sure.." she promised.

Johnny tossed his paramedic's notepad that he had been writing in over a shoulder and threw his hands up, rubbing his face in exasperation. "I don't believe this is happening, Cap.." he whined.  
"We gotta get her t--"

Hank held up his palms. "Now, Gage, you know the law as well as I do. The little lady's obviously fully cognizant enough, legally, to decide what's best for hers----"

"Little lady?!" Dixie fumed.

Hank shrank in his overcoat. "Sorry. Poor choice of words? To me,  
everybody's little." commented the lanky fire captain sheepishly.  
"I apologize if I offended you but the important thing right now is finding out whether or not you're really ok. We can hash over how this is being handled afterwards, all right?"

Dixie drew up a glare. "Cancel that Mayfair, Hank. I have a cold.  
That's all." she said dangerously.

Cap felt the back of his neck smoking from the strength of her ire. "Ok.. canceling. ." he said reasonably and fully respectful of her wish to end the medical call. "Gage, she's allllll yoourrsss."

"Thanks, Cap.." Johnny was thrilled. Not.

"Kelly," Cap barked. "...let's give them a little earshot distance.  
Come on, pal.."

"Aww, Cap. I wanna stay and help out.." Chet whined.

"Now, Chet!" Stanley snapped.

"...coming..." Kelly peeped.

The two firemen packed up the O2 and turned for the direction of the Ward just as Mike Stoker came panting up with the private phone rigged onto a bright orange extension cord. "I got it.  
Hang on while I dial o--"

Stanley didn't even bother to turn around. "Jolly well. The gang's all here. Now put it back. I guess she's a refusal, Stoker."

"What?"

"Is there something wrong with your ears or mine, Mike." Cap snarled.

"Mine, Cap." Stoker bellied up.

"Fine. Clean up this mess around here and cancel the second ambulance while you're at it." He began to tromp away. "Oh,"  
he said, retracing his tracks. "You're deaf to those two for the next minute or so.." he said tossing a hand at Dixie and Gage.

"I sure will be.." chirped Stoker, recognizing a pending bit of paramedic hardball to come when he saw it. He stooped only long enough to use a water puddle to wash off some blood after he had policed the area free of medical run fallout. Then he was gone, with Cap being his bigger shadow.

-  
Gage willfully stopped drumming his frustrated fingernails on the arm of Dixie's poolside chair. He laced his hands together in an unconvincing show of amenability. "Ok.." he smiled, falsely fake.  
"Now where were we?" he purred, ..tightly.

"Talking about how normal I am right now.." Dixie said, crossing her arms together.

"I wouldn't call keeling over backwards into a swimming pool in a dead faint, quite normal, Dixie. Quite the opposite."  
he growled.

"Look..." Dixie purred, just as deadly serious. "I just got done with twenty five solid minutes of aggressive, rapid CPR."  
Would you still be normal after doing that?" she fired back at him.

Johnny gaped like a fish, then he pursed his lips, scratching his head. "Well...." he admitted, his voice sliding up a few notes on a scale. 'I-- uh, I'll give you that...... particular point."

"Good! Then go away cause I'm telling you, I'm perfectly--"  
Dixie sneezed and immediately, she gasped, grabbing her stomach.

"Oh, really?" Gage moved in for the kill. "That was normal,  
eh?.. Come on, Dix. Let me see your stomach!" Johnny said, reaching out for palpating check.

McCall whipped up the blanket to her chin, deflecting Johnny's hands as she resumed her angry stare.  
"Touch me, and I swear I'll bite your hand off!  
Today is gonna be all MINE!" she yelled, barely keeping it below a quiet roar.

-  
"Is there a problem here?" came an authoritative voice.

Both the battling Dixie and Gage looked up, kinda startled for a moment. They had forgotten about the cop being there. And his report.

"No..no.."  
"Nope. Not at all." they both stuttered.

"We're through.." said Dixie firmly. Johnny said the same word, meekly obedient. "We're through,  
officer.. uh,...I guess.."

"Okay, then you wouldn't mind if I go over a few details with Miss McCall here about the Miller boy.  
That's if.. you found that she's still medically ABLE to.."  
the police officer hinted.

"I AM." Dixie punctuated, dismissing Johnny with a wave.

Johnny cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Go right ahead, officer." Gage postured, backing away and wrapping up his stethoscope.

He fired off one last glare at her when the cop wasn't looking.  
"You call us back if ANY of those symptoms return. Understood?!"  
he hissed, stabbing down a finger at the air. That gesture immediately turned into a farewell wave when the police man glanced up at Johnny with a disapproving raised eyebrow.

Dixie celebrated. "Mother's keeper.." And then she stuck out her tongue at him. "In...your....dreams..."

-  
So, having chalked up one save and another one as unresolved, Station 51 tucked their tails back between their legs and left the neighborhood. The engine returned to base as unavailable and the squad remained 10-7 to Rampart until everyone was freed up from their mutual responsibilities.

Gage continued to pore over Dixie's symptoms.

"Maybe I should let one of the docs know about her." he mumbled to Chet on the way back.

"I wouldn't if I were you. You still have to WORK with Dixie later on,  
man. Do you really want to face her once she's over that cold of hers?"

Photo : Dixie falling into swimming pool.

Photo: Johnny soaked to the skin.

Photo : Dixie in a faint in Gage's arms.

Photo: Cap on the HT outside close by the Ward.

*  
From : wone3 Sent : Sunday, October 10, 2004 3:38 PM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Nagging Doubts "You are right, Chet." Gage told him with a bit of hesitation. He didn't want to face the wrath of Dixie.

He had faced that wrath too many times as an injured party in Rampart's emergency room, avoiding being admitted for injuries received on the job. She would use that no-nonsense-she-was-right attitude, much like she did a few moments ago.

Still something was nagging at him that she was injured more than she'd let on. ::Call it intuition:: he thought for a few more minutes, planning on stopping in to check on her after the shift change, as a friend. He figured that maybe he wouldn't receive quite as much wrath as he would've if he were on duty still. He'd run all of his suspicions by Roy first though, and maybe they could come up with a better plan together.

The drive to Rampart moved on silently as Johnny drove and Chet looked out the window.

The police officer, eyeballing Dixie and deciding she still wasn't quite right, decided to keep his questioning short and to the point.

Dixie was sitting a bit more straight in the chair than she had been while Johnny was there. "Can you tell me what happened, Ma'am?" he asked.

Dixie told him everything, including about hearing what one of the teens had said to the injured boy, of not mentioning what had happened in the house. After finishing her story, Dixie kind of fell back into her chair in an exhausted state.

The officer, seeing this, thanked her for her time after getting her contact information and gave her his card. He mentioned that if anymore information was needed, he'd come by to get it from her, and then he turned and left to return to his car to drive to the hospital.

After they had all left, Dixie decided, in her exhausted state, that she'd had enough sunbathing for one day. She was still feeling the gripping pain in her stomach and her cold like symptoms weren't letting up, so she went inside to lie down for a bit. "Maybe this is all I need to lessen a few of these symptoms," she said to herself.

After locking her patio door, Dixie snuggled up in her bed and soon fell asleep.

-  
Roy and Marco were quietly talking in the ambulance as it sped away from the apartment complex with Roy watching their patient closely.

Marco asked, "Do you think Miss McCall will be all right, Roy?"

Roy reassured Marco,"Johnny is there to look out for her and he won't let anything happen that he couldn't do something about."

The entire crew of 51-A held this nurse with a great deal of caring and concern, as it seemed like they dealt with her frequently, due to injuries on the job. She seemed to always be there for them, whether they were the injured one or one of the waiting room party.

Roy couldn't help but feel as though something more was going on.

He would check on the situation once freed up in the emergency room.

Fortunately, the ride to the hospital was a short one and their patient did not grow any worse from the trip. Dr. Brackett was waiting for the ambulance to pull up and he told them to go to Treatment Room 2. Roy took a look at the desk as they sped by and noticed Carol was busy on the phone.

He'd go check with her to see if Johnny had called in as soon as he was free.

The gurney reached the treatment room and soon the patient was lifted over to the examination table and the ambulance attendants left the room.

Carol entered the room with two other nurses.

Before the doctor could give out orders, Roy asked Carol, "Have you been on the phone with Johnny?"

Brackett looked at Roy quizzingly about that statement. Roy then debated with himself about how much he should tell the doc. He had a suspicion there was more than friendship between the doctor and the nurse and what he would say would really get to the doc. He also knew, though, that Brackett wouldn't let it go until he heard the truth. So Roy hesitantly started to tell his tale.

"The run we responded to was at Dixie's apartment complex. We found her performing CPR on the patient with a group of kids assisting her as much as possible when we arrived," he continued. "After we had finished contacting you about the re-  
establishment of the teen's airway, Dixie seemingly fainted and fell into the pool. I know she was coming around when I left but I know nothing more than that," Roy finished, knowing the anxiety he was causing everyone in the room.

Carol answered Roy question, "I've been on the phone ordering tests and checking on patients inside the hospital and I know that Johnny hadn't called in when I came in here."

That bothered Roy for a minute but he knew Dixie had been coming around as they left, he thought to himself. If she was feeling fine and stubborn, Dixie wouldn't let them bring her in for something non critical in her book. He assumed that was the case and figured the squad would be there shortly.

Roy's story also concerned Brackett for a brief moment but he needed to fully concentrate on his patient.

"I'm meeting Dixie tonight and I can check on things." he told the room. ::I won't leave her until I'm COMPLETELY satisfied that she's doing just fine:: he continued in his thoughts, and then he refocused entirely on the patient.

* * *

Photos: None.

*  
From : Cassidy Meyers Sent : Wednesday, October 13, 2004 1:07 AM Subject : Connections

It was an hour later, not long after the Miller boy had been stabilized cardiac wise from respiratory acidosis. He had gone on to Broncoscopy for a thorough check on the extent of the alveoli damage that he sustained from his aspiration of chlorinated pool water into both his lungs.

Kel was very happy with the teenager's labwork, C spine and chest x-ray films. He was being kept under the paralytic agent to thwart another surprise occurance of intubation laryngospasm. The boy had been reunited with his family and things looked good on the EEG. Dr. Brackett was almost certain that no brain damage took place while he had been arrested. ::Helps that someone was there to work on his resuscitation so quickly.:: he theorized. ::My gut feeling on his neurological status will just be confirmed when he wakes up tomorrow morning.::

That line of thinking reminded Kel yet again of his short,  
revealing conversation with Roy DeSoto about Dixie McCall.

The four firemen from 51's had gone back to the station as soon as they were freed from the Miller kid's care and paperwork, jammed together in the rescue squad. He had wished that he could've talked to Johnny Gage directly about his head nurse's symptomatic findings, but he had been too tied up with his teenaged patient's surgical intubation procedure.

Kelly Brackett excused himself from the Emergency Department floor, letting Carol know that he'd be in his office for a few minutes.  
His simple nod and gesture toward its ornately polished dark oaken door guaranteed that Carol would indeed notify him the moment another patient case announced itself either by paramedic biophone or via the waiting room.

The babble of hospital activity was mercifully muffled when he shut the door behind himself. Kel Brackett immediately went to the olive green phone on the desk.

His fingers danced over a familar sequence of numbers on the rotary dial and he impatiently sat through four telephone rings before he finally heard a sleepy voice pick up. "Dix?  
It's Kel." he began. "Talk to me."

He heard a tired groan on the other end of the line followed by a tight cough and a rustling of blankets when McCall's gravelly voice finally addressed him. "...hmm. Kel? For Pete's sake, what time is it?"

"Time for your attending physician to get some answers pronto."  
he said firmly. "Just what were you thinking when you sent the paramedics away following your little stunt nose diving into your apartment complex's swimming pool?"

In a point assuredly in her favor in Dr. Brackett's book, Dixie McCall immediately got angry. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't hang up on you right now, Kel Brackett. I was sleeping soundly for the first time in..."

"Roy DeSoto. He was worried enough about you to let me know what had happened to you in the Treatment Room after your neighbor was brought in." Brackett fired back.

"That b*st*rd!" and there was a silence on the other end of the phone.  
" Whatever happened to patient/paramedic confidentiality?! I didn't know Johnny Gage was such an irritating example of a gossiping SOB!"

"Pipe down! He only did his job like any paramedic worth their salt should've done. He notified his attending medical director of a potential medical problem. The fact that he did it through his partner's a moot point and you know it."

Dixie quieted down, thinking of her unexpected rescue victim. "How's Ger doing?" she asked, sitting up in bed, smothering up a wince so it wouldn't be apparent vocally.

The lamp turning on in her darkened bedroom did more than just stab into her eyes.  
It brought on the mother of all headaches and a wave of unexpected deep nausea which the nurse fought down by putting a hand to her mouth.

She bore through Kel's ire bravely.

"I'll get to Gerald Miller as soon as I know that YOU'RE all right. If you were symptomatic enough to red flag Roy and Johnny, you automatically red flag me. So again, I say, talk to me.." he said no nonsense.

Dixie sighed, pulling a waste can full of used tissue and half eaten cough drops into her lap. "There isn't much to say, Kel. What's so unusual about having a stomach virus?"

"When did that come on?"

"Yesterday morning at work."

"What are your symptoms and vital signs?"

"Oh come off it, Kel. Quit being a mother hen. I'm not a hypochondriac to take notes on every little incidence of the sniffles."

"Humor me."

"Kel....no." she spat tightly. "This is my day off, and it's gonna stay that way. We're not going to be getting together over dinner tonight. No police officer's gonna stop by for more details on Ger's drowning. And no pesky off duty paramedic is gonna come calling to my front door. Nada. End of story.  
I know my rights as an ex-emergency medical patient."

"What about my rights as your closest friend? Does that matter any?  
Forget about my white coat, Dix. That and my stethoscope are still hanging up on the hat rack across the room!" he boomed.

McCall sighed, resting her head onto her bare knees. "I'm sorry, Kel.  
I get cranky with colds. When I get them.." she bemoaned.

"Oh, so now you're telling me that you've got a cold and not a stomach bug. Which is it?"

"I don't know.. and I don't care. All I want is twenty four hours uninterrupted down time as is due me on my off day. Is that such an unreasonable request?  
The fact that Ger Miller's accident interceded has absolutely no bearing on the issue!"

"You're right, Dix. It doesn't." Kel agreed rapidly, toning down the frustration in his voice. "And thank you for being there. He's gonna make it with flying colors.."

"Paralysis?"

"None. His films are clear."

"Coma?"

"There's no signs. You guys were absolutely amazing with keeping him one hundred percent oxygenated. Just be grateful to Brantigan and Grow for Roy's military needle cric technique that he so kindly shared with me during the last paramedics meeting. Miller's already been decannulated and there's no indication of any subglottic stenosis at all. Now enough about him."

"Kel, read my lips, or at least listen to them. Go away. I'm fine. I'll call you after sundown in an update. Just keep Johnny and Roy outta my hair tonight and I'll think about staying your best friend. Goodnight or good afternoon and good riddance!" and she slammed her elegant white and gold Victorian phone receiver down and cut off the connection.

Kel Brackett winced at the vigorous slam of noise into his ear. He held the phone in his palm for a few seconds, half considering calling Dixie back again. :: Do I have the right to bother her any more? She sounds like she knows what she's doing. And I'll get my second phone call in five hours.:: he thought, looking at his watch.

McCall barely made it to the bathroom in time before vomiting and suffering a bout of miserable diarrhea. "Oh, god I hate the flu bug.."  
she groaned. Long minutes later, wet from the shower and naked,  
Dixie crawled back into bed and pulled the covers over her head.

Making a decision, Dr. Brackett decided candor was the better part of valor and he dialed the number out to Station 51.

* * *

"Los Angeles County Fire Department, this is Fireman Mike Stoker. Can I help you?" Mike glanced up, "Gage. It's for you. It's Brackett."

"It is?" he said, his mouth full of burger. "It's about time I heard from him. Roy, did I ever tell you I love you for spilling the beans about Dix's little fainting stunt to him?"

"No. But I think you can refrain from expressing yourself. Joanne might get a little jealous." DeSoto quipped.

Johnny jogged to the phone, dodging around all the gangs' shoulders in his hurry to cut physical corners to reach the doctor. "Dr. Brackett?  
Johnny Gage."

"Gage. I talked with her."

"And?"

"And...there's nothing more I can do at the moment. She's adamant about refusing to see me or any other doctor for her illness."

"That's sheer craziness, doc." Johnny said, spitting out his mouthful of burger into a napkin. "She's gotta be seen sometime. You weren't there.  
I was. She was paler than anything once I rolled her face out of the water."

"Did she breathe any of that in?"

"No. She woke up too fast for that."

"Did her BP stay bottomed out?"

"No. It got back up into the low hundreds."

"And that was sitting up, right?"

"Yeah, doc. Look. Now you know as much as I do. So bottom line. Are ya gonna do anything about her?"

"I can't. Not by law."

"I'm going over there."

"No you aren't. You'll only get hauled off for trespassing. Dixie mentioned something to that effect."

Gage threw up his hands. "Wonderful. Now how are we gonna have any guarantees that she's all right?"

"I sort of got one."

"How...?" Gage asked sarcastically.

"She's gonna call me at sundown with an update."

"Fair enough. I'll call off Roy, too, from going over there only so long as we hear from you as soon as you hear from her."

"Consider that a promise."

"Thanks, doc."

"No problem. I'll hear from you next rescue call. I got the floor from lunch time through the rest of the night."

"Bye, Doctor Brackett. Talk to you then."

Johnny hung up the phone.

He wandered back over to his chair and sat down,  
ignoring the bowl of potato salad that Chet pushed over to his end of the table to cheer him up.

Cap inquired finally. "So, how's she doing? Is she gonna get checked out?"

"No."

Roy looked up from his lunch. "You're kidding."

"Wish I was, pally. Kel just made me promise that you and I won't stop by over there in between calls."

"On the strength of what guarantee?!" Chet whined.

"On the fact that Dixie's promised to keep phone tabs with him every couple of hours."

"And Kel Brackett bought that line of malarkey?" Cap sighed sarcastically.

"Yep." Johnny said, balling up his napkin and tossing it onto his plate in irritation.

Roy had some input. "You know, fellas, this could be a case of personal feelings getting in the way. Those two did date once you know. Maybe they're dating again. It could explain the doc's lack of medical bulldog tenacity because it concerns someone he truly cares about. He doesn't want to offend her."

"That's just stupid, Roy. If you were Dixie right now, being sick and all, stepping on eggshells is the last thing I'd be doing about you. I'd be busting down your door with a full med kit."  
Johnny interjected loudly.

"I don't think it'll come to that." DeSoto grinned reasonably.  
"After all, Dixie's a veteran registered nurse of twenty years.  
She'd never let an illness go on untreated if it were truly serious."

"I'm still not comfortable." Gage said, narrowing his eyes.

"Neither am I." said Chet, fully in agreement. "I think we should go around the both of them and let Joe Early in on this. No one will be held accountable if he's the one who suddenly shows up on Dixie's doorstep. He's gotta go over there tonight anyway."

"How so, Kelly?" Marco asked.

"To deliver a box of tickets for the Fireman's Annual Picnic Event. Dixie's one of the primary sellers this year since Gage didn't come forward and volunteer himself for it like he did for last year's."

"Why should I have? I'm a rotten seller." Johnny defended.

"Ummm hmm, but you're too good a paramedic not to meddle with a friend who might be in trouble and I'm too good a fireman to let someone burn themselves unnecessarily.  
I'm gonna go call Joe right now." he said, getting up. "Look, you two have done your job, and so has Dr. Brackett. It's now my turn to go to bat. Calling Joe'll only take a minute. Excuse me.  
And Gage, if you touch my burger, you're dead meat.."  
Chet warned as he dialed the phone without turning around.

The others laughed when Johnny snatched his creeping hand back into his lap.

Roy leaned over the table. "This sorta compromises the patient paramedic confidentiality thing. You feel good about Chet getting Dr. Early involved, Cap?"

"You bet your *ss I do. Somebody's gotta take a stand. Cause who's gonna watch out for Dixie's, if we don't?" Hank replied, biting into a potato chip.

* * *

Photo: Kel Brackett on the office phone.

Photo: Dixie in off duty clothes.

Photo: Mike Stoker, answering the station phone.

Photo: Chet Kelly in close up, serious.

Photo: Johnny stuffing his mouth with food while Hank watches.

Photo: The gang eating lunch under a sunny kitchen window.

*  
From: "Cory Anda" Date: Wed Oct 13, 2004 4:17 am Subject: The High Angle Woodie..

The dishes were just about done when the overhead speaker mounted above the payphone in the kitchen, issued tones.

Errr! Uuhhhh! Eaggghh! ##Station 51, Truck 99. Unknown type rescue at the Colossus County Fair. 24500 Town Center Drive.  
Cross street.. the Valencia exit of CA Interstate 5. 24500 Town Center Drive. Cross street, the Valencia exit of CA Interstate 5. Park operators recommend arrival to the West Gate. Time out 15:06. ##

The whole gang abandoned towels and newspapers and left for the vehicle bay on the run.

"So, whatdiya think, Cap? Another ferris wheel accident?"  
Kelly shouted as he pulled on his turnout gear. "If it is,  
that'll make it the fourth time this year."

"Hard to say, pal. L.A.'s details are sketchy. Or he would've told us more. Sam can only go on what's reported." Hank said. Then he picked up the alcove mic. "Station 51, 10-4. KMG 365."

Marco countered. "We've never gone here before, Chet.  
I know that for sure. I remember because Mama lives out near there. She can see the coasters from her front porch." he said getting into the Ward.

"Ooo, yeah, gosh. Now I remember this place. Isn't that the home of Colossus, the western United State's tallest roller coaster?" Mike Stoker asked.

Kelly nodded as the squad ahead of them pulled out to lead the way. "Yep. I know that ride like the back of my hand.  
The highest point on it is 125 feet. Its largest drop, of fourteen hills,  
is 115 feet. The track's 4325 feet long with a maximum speed of 62 miles an hour with a rated G force of 3.2. Enough to make you lose your lunch if you aren't prepared."

"You sure know a lot about that ride, Chet."

"When something scares the bejeesus out of you,  
you remember everything about it, Marco. I took a date there last month. I don't know who was more scared, me or her." Kelly shouted over the sirens as the engine picked up speed.

Cap had been listening and grinning like a feral cat.  
"Who says this is a coaster incident?"

The radio barked into life. ##L.A., Station 51.##

Hank snatched up the microphone. "This is Station 51."

##Station 51. Civilians report an unconscious woman. With additional information. Your situation has been outlined as a high angle rescue on a wooden structure. No mechanical failure or fire is involved.##

"10-4, L.A. Station 51's ETA is nine minutes."

##Station 51.##

"Oh boy." Chet gulped.

"What?" Marco asked.

"That's where we're headed, guys."

"To where?" Stoker asked, hitting the air horn to scatter a particularly stubborn motorist putzing in front of the light blazing fire engine.

"To Colossus. She's their brand new coaster. Opened last June. Solid wood, man. She's the only ride in the park made of it."

##So, out goes another ferris wheel extrication and in comes a problem with real sphincter value.## quipped Gage to Roy, who had been listening on live cab to cab band. ##Outta sight.##

All the firemen laughed, easing tensions.

Hank barked out authority. "Ok, you clowns, pipe down. Chet, what else can you tell me about this Colossus ride."

"Well, she's got an up to four person capacity to each passenger car, with six cars per train. "

"Twenty four people, huh? I wonder if I should request additional help?" Hank scratched his chin around his helmet's strap as he bounced around in his seat.

##Let's wait until we get there. ## Roy suggested. ##We'll get a better picture of it all once we've talked to somebody#  
he said over the radio mic.

"Oh, yeah, six trains are always running at any one time."  
Chet added, licking his lips.

"Not now they aren't. Not if that woman was spotted out cold as a rider." Cap interjected. "That coaster operator must be smart. He's realized that bringing her train down would only increase risk of injury. She can't guard against hard knocks or jolts to her head and neck anymore."

Johnny Gage finished the thought. ##...so he left the train in a semi level area and called for help.##

"Most likely on top of one of those hills Chet mentioned."  
theorized Marco.

"And into that high angle rescue profile L.A. told us about."

"125 feet... Do we have rappelling gear enough to handle that height?" Stoker asked.

"What we don't have, we can grab from Truck 99. They are strictly a rescue rig." Hank resolved.

"So that's it, then." Chet said. "We're set."

## I sure hope so. ## replied Gage. ## For the victim's sake. ##

* * *

Photo: The gang doing dishes and cooking.

Photo: The Ward roaring down the freeway.

Photo: Cap on the radio mic.

Photo: Roy, and Johnny on the mic, in the squad.

Photo: The Colossus coaster in a panorama.

*  
From: "wone3" Date: Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:38 pm Subject: Joe's Visit

Meanwhile across town, and oblivious to all of the excitement that had gone on that day, Joe Early was enjoying his day off. He was spending it mostly out of the house and therefore he missed Chet's urgent phone call. He had the boring, home maintenance chores to do, like paying the bills and mailing the checks and weeding and mowing touch ups;  
but he also had some fun things to do, too.

He had stopped off at the bookstore to get a book from his favorite author that he knew had just come out and he was coveting. Instead of just running in for it, he spent like two hours exploring the store and looking at other books and he bought a few more besides the one he was looking for.

He also stopped off at his favorite liquor store and had gotten several bottles of wine, including a few of Dixie's favorites. He was planning on stopping by her place on the way home to give her a bottle of it as a thank you for a few things she'd done for him in the past few weeks. He was just about finished with his errands.  
So he headed for his next-to-last stop, at Dixie's place. He left his last stop next, to be the grocery store, because he wasn't sure how long he'd be staying at Dixie's.

* * *

He arrived shortly in her parking lot and stopped his car. He grabbed the small bag that held the single bottle of wine and the box of tickets that he'd promised Chet that he'd deliver, and Joe walked to her front door.

He knocked on the door pretty loudly the first time, not announcing himself. He was surprised when Dixie hadn't heard him. He tried a second and after a few minutes, later, a third time. And each time, Dixie didn't answer the door. Joe tried the door one more time and still, he didn't get an answer.

Joe grew a bit concerned, since he knew that it was her day off, too, and he that knew she'd planned on doing nothing but relaxing at her place.

* * *

Inside, Dixie was shivering, though her forehead, if it were touched,  
felt like it was burning up, under the covers of her bed. She thought she'd heard the door but she chose to ignore it, knowing that none of her friends would be showing up after the warning she'd passed onto Kel Brackett.

She heard the second knock and opened her eyes.

Her nasty headache was still with her, and as she started to sit up, a massive wave of nausea hit her. She managed to get to the bathroom and vomited for a few seconds as it turned into dry heaves.

She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. She hadn't felt like it.  
That had come up earlier.

She heard the door the third time and cleaned up in a hurry.

She was going to yell at either Johnny and Roy or Kel for coming over even after she'd stated her demands to Kel. She started to open the door, wincing a bit from the pain that was still with her.

-  
Long ago, Dixie had entrusted Joe and Kelly Brackett with a spare key to her front door to be used in case of need only situations. Joe was still digging for it, just as Dixie angrily opened the door.

Joe said, "Hi Dix. Sorry to surprise you like this. Did you just get up?" as he took in her appearance. He noticed her sunken, dark, but glassed over eyes, her pale ashen skin that looked like it had a wet sheen to it and the red nose of being sick. :: She must have caught something quickly:: he thought. He knew she hadn't looked like this yesterday during work.

Noting the surprise in Joe's face, she reasoned that he was here of his own free will, and not because he was asked by two busy body paramedics and one mule headed doctor. Dixie let her guard down significantly, but not completely, as she answered him. "Hi Joe, this is a surprise to see you. What's up?"

Joe answered, "I stopped by to drop a few things off. Chet asked me to drop this box of tickets for the fireman's annual picnic. He told me that you were doing them a favor by selling them. I also wanted to drop off a thank you gift for the things that you helped me out doing the past couple of weeks." he said as he held up the bag. "Are you feeling OK? I won't stay long since you look like you are absolutely miserable."

He'd seen her hiding a bit of a wince as she'd opened the door but he didn't feel entirely right about pressing the issue with her.

While Kel Brackett was the type to play hardnosed with Dixie, Joe treated her with 'kid gloves' and respected her to have some knowledge as to when she needed medical attention.

Dixie answered him, "Thank you for dropping the tickets off. I did promise the guys that I'd help them out. Also, thank you for the gift.  
You didn't need to do it, Joe. I was very happy helping you out. Also you are right, I feel miserable from this flu bug. I have been sleeping for a bit, and I probably should go back and catch a bit more sleep. Otherwise, I AM fine and I just wish to be left alone." She said that last bit, with a touch of defensiveness, as she knew Joe would want to examine her further if he felt any doubts.

Joe took his cue from Dixie. He knew that while he wasn't happy with what he saw, he shouldn't press the issue with her. He told Dixie that he'd see her later. He also asked her, if the symptoms got worse or didn't dissipate soon, to please call one of her friends, either Kel, Roy or Johnny if she didn't feel she could drive in to the hospital, or himself.

Dixie reassured him that if that was the case, she'd make the call. And she stressed that she didn't feel like it was needed right now.

Joe then took his leave as Dixie gently shut the door.

She headed for her bathroom as the nausea returned. As soon as it dissipated, she grabbed two more aspirin, hoping they'd stay down and rid her of her headache, and headed back for her bed.

-  
Joe decided not to stop at the store right away, instead he headed straight home to place a call to Kel and see if he knew what was going on with Dixie. He had Kel paged and waited somewhat impatiently as Kel got on the line.

"What's up Joe?" Kel asked.

Joe answered him, "Have you talked to Dixie recently today?"

Kel told him that he had especially after a call the crew from station 51 had been on. Kel then went through the details of the day including Dixie's "nosedive" into the pool, the deal he had made with her, and his conversations with Johnny and Roy about what they saw.

Joe said, " You might want to rethink it. She looks like h*ll. I bet she's worse than when Johnny saw her last. Someone needs to push her to get medical attention though she won't do it unless she feels like she needs to." Joe then went into detail about everything he observed. He told Kel about how she looked and the wince that she tried to hide from him as she opened the door.

Kel said, "You know how she is when she's in that stubborn, no-  
nonsense mood. We aren't going to get her to change her mind. We need to think about this and figure a way to get her to realize that she needs help worse than she thinks right now."

They both stayed on the phone for a few minutes thinking, but soon Kel was getting called for a case. They agreed to continue thinking on their own and to call each other once they had a potential plan.

Then they both hung up.

Photos: None.

*  
From : Sam Iam Sent : Tuesday, October 19, 2004 10:56 PM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Domino Effect

Cap stepped out of Engine 51's cab even before it rolled to a halt. The two fire department vehicles were flanking the massive back turn of the roller coaster's structure next to the towering white bulk of the ride's main wooden track.

They had followed an amusement utilities department vehicle to get there.

##L.A., Station 51's on scene. ## Stoker said into the engine's radio mic.

## Station 51. Time out. 15:22. ## L.A. replied.

##Truck 99, break out your rappelling gear. Looks like we're gonna need it.## Hank Stanley requested on his hand held.

All the gang bunched together in between the squad and engine and looked up.

The Colossus's rails were silent, and two of its six red and yellow roller coaster trains hung eerily suspended and stationary, on the tops of the two highest hills. It seemed glaringly unnatural in the middle of all the normal crowd noises and amusement park cacaphony.

Cap pulled off his working gloves. "Looks like that's our target up here. The nearest one's people are waving us down.  
Marco, go find the ride operator. Tell him to make sure the emergency stop is fully activated. And tell him I wanna track walker, double checking the manual braking bandit arms on both of these coasters, ASAP. Radio if you learn any medical details."

"Right, Cap." and Lopez jogged off towards the ride's primary colored, circus themed entrance.

Hank turned, "Ok, the rest of you. Johnny, Roy, head on up.  
Best way you can. I'm sure there's an open gate around here somewhere."

DeSoto was studying something intently. "Cap, I think I spotted her. She's in the front right side car. She's not moving at all."

Hank shielded his eyes from the mid afternoon sun's rays and peered in the direction Roy was pointing. "Man, they're really high up there. Climbing's gonna take way too long, guys."

"What other choice do we have?" Roy asked, tightening his chin strap and putting on a life belt.

Johnny Gage spun a circle in place, looking at their surroundings. He stopped suddenly with a jerk of discovery.  
"Cap, what about using that Sky Ride? Those gondolas are running right by the trapped train we need to get to."

Hank turned and considered the viability and safety of Johnny's suggestion. Then he nodded, "You know the Park Director isn't gonna like having two rides shut down at the same time."

Gage sniffed, "He'll live with it." he said dryly.

"That he will." said Cap. He lifted his HT. "Marco, we need the Sky Ride's operator over here pronto.  
I don't care how you do it. But find him. We're commandeering a gondola for a rope launch and tandem rig over to the roller coaster."

##That might take a few minutes, Cap. ##

"That's good enough 'cause the alternative is us taking twenty minutes going it on foot."

Johnny Gage already had the stokes out and he and Roy were loading it up with gear. He didn't stop looking up at the unconscious woman six stories over their heads. One of her arms was dangling over the side of the coaster car and he thought he could see it swaying slowly back and forth. "She's still breathing. Her arm's moving and there's no wind."

Roy and Cap nodded. "Let's hope so. Our delay's already been too long." Hank said with conviction.

The Sky Ride address system suddenly gave an announcement via its music speakers about the rescue operation to come that would require a halt in all the gondolas.  
No one complained. And all heads that were already turned towards the fire departments' flashing trucks nodded encouragingly without any protest.

A shrill whistle got their attention. Cap and the others not gathering up rope coils and pulleys cast about for the source of the sound.

"Hey, firemen! Up here!" It was the Sky Ride operator.  
He had a white painted gondola halted on the roof of a nearby shed. "I got this one set for ya. No people!"  
the gray haired Swedish accented park worker shouted.

"Mister, we'll be right up there." Cap said through the bullhorn. "How much weight can one gondola carry?"

"Your whole g*dd*mned fire truck if it had to. And I'm not talking about the little flashing red one. This ride is top quality Swiss craftsmanship. She's not from some cheap American made, one of a kind, assembly line."

Hank and the others grinned. "No insult intended, sir.  
Just looking out for safety measures!" Cap gestured.

Chet Kelly got a small house ladder from the side of the Ward and jogged it over to the small shed under the eucalyptus trees. Roy and Johnny got into the gondola with the operator and took the rope gun launcher and plenty of rope inside with them before they moved off on the restarted ride.

"You help her young fellas! She looks bad.." said a granny from a nearby red gondola as it passed the white one the two paramedics were in.

"We will ma'am." Roy said, tipping his helmet. "As fast as we can."

Then the two gondolas separated too far for hearing or talking.

Gage and Roy kept their eyes rivetted on the woman as the Sky Ride operator took them up higher and higher towards the roller coaster track's far turn hill, the one the unlucky train was on. Roy finally got a closer view. "Yep. She's breathin. But something's not right beyond her being passed out. She's awfully flushed for the temperature out here today. It's not that hot."

"Oh, yeah?" Gage said, ducking his helmet down to see around the roof's edge of the gondola. "What do you think the problem is, Roy?"

"I don't know. When we get closer, we can ask the other riders."

"Good idea." Johnny said, putting on his lifebelt.

Right then, there was a snap when the emergency trackwalk worker, on a loop two hundred yards farther up the ride, leaned in on the second coaster train while telling its passengers what the hold up was.

He fell onto his face when the coaster suddenly jerked into motion because of a downward slope and gravity.

The worker went running desperately, trying to catch up to the slowly speeding up train to flick a brake switch and bring it to a halt again. But the coaster was too fast.  
"Roy! We've got a runaway!" Gage said, pointing,  
his voice growing tense and rising into a higher register.  
"I don't think that track walker's gonna make it to the next junction in time to throw the brake before it gets away from him!"

The Swede gave his control bar a kick and all the Sky gondolas jerked and picked up speed.

Gage gritted his teeth, helpless. He watched, as the horrified passengers on the out of control line of cars,  
suddenly discovered, that they were barrelling down on the other stalled coaster. They started to scream in panic.

"We can do it ourselves if we get over there!" Johnny shouted.

"We're not gonna make it in time!" Roy shouted.  
"We're rising too slowly!"

* * *

Photo: A gondola sky ride, passing overhead.

Photo: A sky rider operator, waving.

Photo: A roller coaster on a track, out of control.

Photo: Roy looking up apprehensively.

*  
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 04:34:24 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: Outside Aid..

A zooming roar filled their ears, making Roy and Johnny wince and duck. A raucous voice filled their HTs full volume. ## Chopper 19, HT 51. Halt your cable ride. Pilot is soft touching onto the tracks. We have a ride operator on board!##

The Swede peeked over the edge of the fireman's gondola, still covering his ears. "Holy mother of.  
Vat is dat?!"

Gage grinned from ear to ear. "That... is a Firehawk H-60!  
You better do as the man says." he told the frightened sky ride operator."You ok?" he asked, setting a hand on the old man's shoulder.

"Ya. Are dos tings always so loud?" he chirped, bringing the gondolas to a gentle stop. He was still gripping his chest.

"Yep." Roy said, smiling huge. Then he turned to Johnny. "I wonder who brainstormed up the chopper idea? That's gonna make all the difference in the world."

"And I wonder if those braking things can stop a train going full tilt?" Gage asked.

"We're gonna find out." Roy replied, watching the yellow,  
black and white Firehawk gingerly maneuver itself sideways towards the crest of the hilled rails near the coaster train holding the distressed woman. The Los Angeles County craft barely got one rung on a strut on top of a maintenance hut jutting out from the coaster course, when the sliding side door opened. A young man wearing a white cloth visor in a maroon, navy and white polo leaped out of the hovering helicopter into a crouch. He put his head between his knees and waited for the powerful bird to pull away.

Then he got up and ran to a ladder that led to the main track below. All the while the youngish man kept his eye on the second train bearing down on them. He didn't go to a brake along the rails, he went to a special one on a platform sheltered by a hut at the top of a bend just before a steep dip and fall of the rails.

He quickly powered up a console and ansted until all lights were green. Then he grabbed a long ratchet arm controlling rod attached to wires beneath the track and threw it backwards like a bandit's as soon as the train passed by a lighted yellow beacon.

All the firemen watched the runaway lurch, jerking the riders heads forward as the emergency brakes below the wheels of their train bit down on the steel rails. Sharp sparks flew from the coaster's underside as all the pads on the cars strained to stop the train. But it was still coming fast, full of kinetic energy left over from a large hill it had gone down.

The coaster man threw the bandit controller back one more time. Again, the sparks beneath the flying train arched out in a noisy squeal of metal on metal. The riders heads jolted even harder despite the bracing of many locked arms on the padded bars in front of them. A chorus of frightened cries burst out from the coaster's people at the second jerk.

Then the roller cars hit an uphill and reverse inertia began to work. The sparks trails shooting out lessened as the train started to finally slow down below sixty miles an hour.

One hundred yards, ninety yards, eighty....

The distance gap between the two coasters was still narrowing dangerously.

"Come on,...come on... " mumbled Johnny through gritting teeth. "Come to a stop..."

The swede next to him got into the moment and shouted,  
too. "Put some muscle into it, Ivan, or I'm not worth the time and energy I put into trainin ya!"

Roy looked away from the dramatic spectacle despite of himself, "Who's Ivan?"

"He is!" declared the Sky Ride operator at the brave teenager braking the runaway. "My first born son. If anyone gets hurt up there, it'll just tear him apart. He's got the best safety record of all of them. His riders have gotten nothing worse than a bruise or two for trying to stand up on all the dropoffs. Ivan!  
Do you hear me?!" he roared.

The young man seemed to. He opened terrified eyes below a sweat beaded forehead and glanced at his father's gondola very quickly. Then he threw his whole body onto the brake.

The runaway protested, screeching chalkboard sounds as it went by the teenager at nearly forty miles an hour.

Twenty. Ten. Seven yards. Six...

"no....." grunted the teenager through slitted eyes. "You're still too fast..." he said, leaning on the control bar. His back was nearly level onto the track and his arms knotted and shook with the effort. "Slow down!"

Five yards. Four. Then... bang! An emergency crash stop flew up from the track in between the two roller coasters as the runaway finally reached a critical twenty miles an hour. The train slammed into the short barrier in a sudden stop three feet before it collided with the unconscious woman's train.

So did the riders, into their shoulder bars. The force knocked some of them out and their heads hung limply in between the padded bars and a few hands fell limp.

"Good boy, Ivan!" shouted the Swede across the sixty feet of air separating them. "You did it.

Roy and Johnny winced in sympathy, immediately assessing them visually. "Ouch.." DeSoto. "That had to hurt."

"Yeah, but they didn't pancake. Count your blessings, partner.  
Getting the wind knocked out of ya is better than dying. Okay, sir. Let's go! Let's go!" Johnny urged.

"You don have to tell me twice.." said the Swede and once again the Sky Ride gondolas began their ascent to Colossus.

Roy lifted his HT. "HT 51, to Chopper 19. It worked. Thanks for your assistance."

##Anytime, 51. We're touching down in the north parking lot for your injured to come. Standing by, running hot.##

"10-4, Chopper 19. 51 out." DeSoto said, breathing heavily.

The firemen's white gondola reached its highest point and Roy and Johnny got to work. They shouted instructions over to Ivan to protect himself while they fired the head of the rope launcher over to the coaster platform and how and what to tie off the heavier corded rope onto. Thankfully,  
Ivan was a farmhand and got a handle quickly on the knot tying directions.

"You go first." Roy said. "I'll string the stokes between us."

"All right." said Johnny.

Beyond them, Ivan quickly got to his feet again after locking down the electrical emergency braking panel and he ran out to the trains with a fire extinguisher just in case friction had set any wood aflame.

Gage attached his belt hook and feed line to the aerial Ivan had tied off after testing it thoroughly. The Swede threw open the gondola's door. "Be careful, fireman.  
That's six stories to fall if you aren't."

"Believe me, I'm well aware of that. My partner and I work in places as high as this all the time."

And with that, Johnny stepped off into air, letting go of the warm metal of the sky gondola.

* * *

Photo: An H-60 Firehawk Helicopter in the air.

Photo: A roller coaster operator.

Photo: Stunned people sitting in a roller coaster.

Photo: A man hitched to a rappelling harness.

Photo: A rappeller inching down an aerial rope bridge.

*  
From : Roxy Dee Sent : Thursday, October 21, 2004 3:47 AM Subject : The Angry Cloud~~

Johnny Gage grabbed the stokes and jerked it along the pulley line behind him. "So, how are we gonna manage this? You take one coaster, and I take the other?"

Roy DeSoto grunted a reply, pulling himself along the horizontal rope tethered between the sky ride gondola and the Colossus' hilltop track structure. "Yeah, that's the way I figure."

Another helicopter appeared from the direction of the parking lot. Gage could see four heads inside its windows. "Looks like we won't be alone for long. Cap's thrown some men in a second chopper." He pulled out his walkie talkie from his pocket. "HT 51, Chopper 11.  
What kind of gear and personnel do ya have on board?" Gage shouted into the radio to be heard over the sound of spinning rotors.

## Three spinal immobilization boards, six stokes, the full contents of your rescue squad's medical and trauma store and four firefighters. L.A. reports another fire department rescue squad has been dispatched to our location.## answered the pilot on the headset patched into Johnny's frequency.

"Good deal. Good deal. Tell the guys we want the drug box and airway gear out first!" Johnny said as he continued to pull himself one handed along the line.

## I copy, 51. Relaying your message.##

"I'll keep touch with ya on HT, Roy." Gage said, out distancing the more methodical paramedic on the horizontal rappelling line.

Johnny began to hurry even more when he saw a frantic panic start on the first coaster. "Hey, just calm down over there! Tell me what's happening!" he shouted over to them.

No one even tried to answer him and five people from the woman's train suddenly lost it and wormed their way out of their seats.

Ivan noticed from his vantage point. "No! Stay put! It's not safe to walk on anything but the center boardway!"  
And he began running, to intercept them.

He ran smack into the center of a pack of bees.  
"AhhhHHHh!" And he, too, started to swipe and slap himself, trying to get them off.

"What the h*ll?!" Johnny mumbled as he completed tranversing the distance to the rails. He unhooked himself and immediately took action. He turned back towards his partner. "Roy! Yellow jackets! A whole swarm of them!"

And he ran over to where Ivan was flailing. Gage picked up the fire extinguisher that the young teen had dropped and used it on him to freeze the bees off of his body. He did the same for anyone under attack. Then he set the red cylinder aside, upright for Roy to find when he caught up to him. "Ma'am..?" he asked the original dark skinned unconscious girl as he shook her. "Can you hear me?" He bent quickly to listen to her breathing while he got a grip on her carotid.  
The woman had one, but it was thready. And there was a new symptom beyond the flushing he had noticed earlier. Swelling and bumps were erupting on her face,  
neck and upper arms and signs of blood bright urticaria. "Anaphylaxis!"

Johnny positioned the girl's head so she had the best airway he could manage on her and then he got on the HT, wide band. "I've got a full blown allergic reaction on Victim One, Train One. I need a drug box and a clear access to Rampart, right now.."

## Establishing the link, 51. ## said Chopper 11's pilot.  
## Fire personnel are en route to you with a biophone and your drug box from the east track. ##

"10-4.." Gage said, glancing up quickly for their progress and Roy's, looking away from the sun.

The older lady next to the girl began to calm down from the fright she took from the bees. "Ohmyg*d. They came back..." she gasped.

Johnny immediately took notice. "What do ya mean they came back?" he asked the rider next to his top priority patient.

"The bees... Our coaster passed by a nest back there.  
We all saw it. They were so angry. They must be worked up because of all the trains rumbling by them every couple of minutes. We passed through a cloud of them and they started stinging us. Then this woman here suddenly gave a shout... I couldn't understand her.. it was Pali or something from India, and then she slumped over."

"You mean she passed out right after the bees got to you the first time?" Gage asked.

"Yes. Almost right away.." the lady nodded shakily.

Gage lifted his head. "My name's John Gage and I'm a paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Now there's a whole buncha firefighters coming and we'll get you all down from here just as soon as we can." Then he told the coaster operator he had helped out. "Hold this woman's head, just like that. I'm gonna be letting go so take over. Keep tabs on her breathing. I'm gonna talk with these other folks to see if anyone else is allergic to bee stings. I'll be right back with ya in less than a minute.."

He jogged to a central point along the train's length and yelled, "Is there anybody who's sensitive to insect bites or stings here who's gotten stung?"  
None of other fifteen people on his train spoke up.

"How's she doing mister?" said one man with three bee stings around his eyes.

"She's alive and help's coming fast. You can stay standing there but don't go too far from the train." Johnny said. Then he ran back to the roller coaster operator,  
while he got out his radio to deliver a casualty number report to Cap waiting below once he got some initial info from Roy.  
He read the young teenager's name tag. "Ivan. Is she still breathing ok?" he said working down the line of people to give them the same orienting speech. "Go ahead and listen to her chest if you have to. I'm wondering about any funny noises, like wheezing, or any signs of choking.."

Ivan listened. "I hear whistling Mr. Gage. Is her throat swelling up?"

"I won't lie to you, Ivan. And I don't wanna scare you. Yes, it is. But it's very important for you to not panic. I need you to tell me the first second her gums or nail beds lose color and start to turn blue. That'll happen if she begins to quit trying to breathe on us. She'll get a shot that'll fix all of that, in less than a minute, once the others get here. Just keep calm and keep close tabs."

The trembling ride operator nodded animatedly,  
unable to speak. He was still coming down from his adrenaline peak that had surged through him while he was desperately braking the second train. He adequately managed the black haired girl's airway despite his shakes.

DeSoto had already started his quick checks of the motionless people on the second coaster. He had two.  
And four others in his train who were in varying degrees of wakefulness.

"Roy! Whatcha got?" Gage shouted..

Roy started his list of severity in worst order first.  
"Two in the front car are out cold, good airways. Possible coup contra coup on both. I got unequal pupils with blood out the nostrils. Pulse and breathing are slowing on one of them. Two cars back, a forty year old female has some dyspnea and is reactant to pain. Broken left collar bone. Her abdomen's also distended. The other three in the back are uninjured or just minor. " Roy said eyeing up the last few visually as they regained their bearings and started asking him questions.

He vaguely wondered what physics had come to bear to save those farther back from getting as hurt as those in front. And a mental ghost of an answer touched on the idea that the hitches between the cars had shock absorbed the impact energy successively.

"I'm leaving all six of them in their seats. The cushioned shoulder bars are doing a good job of keeping them immobilized. And it'll be easier to treat them this way, too, until we can get em out of here." DeSoto concluded.

Johnny pressed his talk button. "Cap? We've got seven victims! Including the original woman."

##Affirmative. Turning back three ambulances and keeping one. ##

"Johnny?!" came Chet Kelly's voice. "I got the drug box."  
he puffed, gingerly tire stepping over the wooden slates and air spaces. "Rampart's on channel two on relay from Copter 11. And Stoker's right behind me with the O2 and airway kit. Marco's got the IV box. Loaded with Ringers."

"Great. Let me see the drug kit." and he took the handle from the firefighter. "Here, change the radio over for me and get a doc on the line. I'm grabbing her epi."  
Gage tossed open the lid of the black box and snatched out a prefilled white papered syringe and tore it open with his teeth. "Ivan?"

"She's still doing it." said the teenager, still carefully holding the woman's swelling head back over the seat pillow. "But I think she's breathing worse.  
It's definitely faster. Around 22 times a minute."

"Ok. Just hang on. I've only gotta get a say so from a doctor. Then it's instant solution time.." he said,  
holding up his needle covered epinephrine syringe.

A man from Truck 99 came with the three light wood backboards and three C-collars. The helicopter pilot and his crewman were busy hovering a distance away, lowering a half hitch on a safety with the six stokes sandwiched and bundled together on a fall line.

Mike Stoker jogged in and knelt by Johnny, only long enough to slip in an oral airway on the unconscious bee stung girl of Gage's along with a high flow oxygen mask before he ran to Roy's side to set up the rest of the three tanks of 02 that he carried with him.

Johnny cursed under his breath after Chet had given a hail to the base station in Torrance twice. "Come on,  
doc. Get the lead out."

* * *

Gif : *animated* A restless yellow jacket bee.

Photo: Roy and Johnny working on someone in a stokes.

*  
From : patti keiper Sent : Tuesday, October 26, 2004 7:34 PM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Cupid....Draw Back Your Bow....

Johnny Gage elicited Marco's help. "Lopez. Grab her legs. I wanna get her to the ground now. And stick around. She may need some help with breathing by demand valve. I'm gonna have epi going in as soon as Chet gets Rampart notified."

Marco nodded, and he carefully took the slight woman's shoulders, and together, paramedic and firefighter lowered the allergic reacted young woman to a flat area in between the roller coaster's tracks. Lopez automatically took the woman's head and checked her status. "Thanks."  
he said to Ivan, the ride operator. "I got it from here.  
Why don't you go over to my coworker and see if he needs any help waking those other people. His name's Roy."

"O-Over there? uh, ok.." said Ivan. "Mister, is she gonna die?"

"No.." said Johnny with conviction up at the teenager.  
"We caught her early enough. This med will turn her around quickly and we'll avoid any chance of cardiac arrest." he said,  
putting the unused epinephrine syringe on the girl's stomach while he grabbed out the Normal Saline I.V. components he'd need for maintaining her hemodynamic stability.

Ivan offered a weak smile before he jogged over to the impacted roller coaster.

"Chet? Anyone on the line yet?" Angrily, Johnny pulled off a bee that was still stinging the Khmer girl with his bare fingers. Then he hastily got a set of vital signs on his patient after cutting her shirt open down to her elastic tube top with the shears from his holster.

Chet shook his head. Then he shouted a little louder into the biophone's black receiver. "Rampart, this is HT 51." said Kelly into the biophone for a third time. "Do you read?!"

Marco gave Johnny some information. "Her airway's still clear from what I can feel, Johnny." he said triggering the thumb pad on the positive pressure O2 mask that he had pressed over her nose and mouth. "Respiration's thirty,  
irregular and shallow."

"Keep up supporting her inhalations. That's too fast a rate to do any good." Gage ordered Marco.

The helmeted firefighter nodded, licking dry lips.

Finally, Dr. Brackett's welcome voice toggled into the frequency.  
##Go ahead, 51.##

Johnny waggled gimme fingers at Chet for the phone. He got it.  
"Doc, analyphalaxis. Small female early twenties. From multiple bee stings." he said rapidly.

Kel immediately understood the need for haste. ## 0.3 mg of epinephrine 1:1000 solution sub Q. Then a large bore IV Normal Saline wide open for follow up boluses of epi 1/10,000 for a minute.  
Stat.##

Johnny dropped the phone and snatched up the syringe, delivering the badly needed adrenaline into the soft tissue of the girl's abdomen.  
He continued to listen to Dr. Brackett's orders issuing from the phone receiver by his feet while he established a very fast I.V. from the set up and bag that was hanging from his teeth.

##If she's non reactant to pain, go ahead and insert an esophageal airway. Especially if she hasn't turned around after a minute or so. Give me a set of vitals when you can.##

Kelly anticipated and picked up Johnny's notepad from on top of the biophone lid. He also propped up the girl's limp blue jeaned legs onto a gear box to offset the increasing signs of hypotension he saw developing in her.  
"Rampart, vital signs are: Blood pressure, 70/48. Pulse is 140. Respirations are ..." he paused, setting a hand on the woman's stomach for a count.  
"..30 and irregular. She is under active ventilations on 100 % O2 at twelve times a minute." reported Chet.

##Standing by, 51..## answered Brackett.

Johnny handed off the running I.V. to the girl's seat passenger to hold and he crouched over her chest to listen to her breath sounds around Marco's hands. He froze there, waiting for the slight sounds of stridor and wheezing to go away, listening intently with his head lowered, through a stethoscope.

They finally did after fifteen very slow seconds.

Johnny Gage smiled. "Rampart, Squad 51. Her dyspnea's actively easing and there's no signs of laryngo or bronchial spasms forming."

Dr. Brackett let out a long sigh of relief and he straightened up out of a worried two palmed lean on the base station's counter.  
##All right, Johnny. Guess we're gonna get lucky. Belay that EOA and send in a strip as soon as possible. Start an aminophylline push,.....5 mg i/v then .5 mgs on a slow drip. I want to prevent a biphasic reaction even before it happens and I wanna lock out any refractory bronchospasms permanently for this exposure.

If you feel you need to give her another covering dose of epinephrine as a bolus, make it 1/10,000 at .5 mg intravenously every ten minutes as necessary. Also, if pulmonary edema shows up or any multilocal ventricular tachycardia, have 2 mgs propranol IV standing by.  
Remember if arrythmias develop, subsidence of the ventricular effects may be followed by atrial tachycardia and atrioventricular blocks. So watch for that transient bradycardia as a secondary epinephrine overdose earmark. Don't be afraid of it. Preserving her airway and ending any adverse vasoeffects are paramount in this stage of the game.##

"10-4, Rampart. Stand by for an EKG on Lead Two."  
Gage replied.

He pulled over the blue Tetronix monitor and opened it.  
Then he wiped down sweaty places on the woman's shoulders and ribs skin with her own shirt before attaching four of its electrode pads. He deftly snapped on their sensor wires. Gage plugged the EKG in to the biophone and adjusted a dial in the red case to a good send frequency for their apparent altitude above ground. "Rampart, transmitting now." he said to Brackett.

Dr. Brackett read his feeding cardiac strip. ##So far so good, 51. Give me a second vitals set after you've delivered your I.V. meds and transport as soon as possible.##

"10-4. We'll be bringing her in by chopper. ETA's approximately ten to fifteen minutes, doc."

##Understood. I'll consider myself on hold for any preflight info.##

Under Marco's hands, the woman coughed and the fingers of both her hands, resting on the hot sun lit railwood slats, twitched.

Johnny immediately bent close and pulled out the short oral airway in her mouth before she could gag on it. "Heyyy.. How are you doing? Can you hear me yet? What's your name?"

The girl sputtered, shoving away the O2 mask vaguely, moaning.  
"....hhghhh. Can't....br--"

"Marco, raise her up..." Gage told him. Lopez did so, leaning the girl's weight against his chest. He switched out Marco's hand held ventilator for an elastic banded simple clear mask. "Is that better, hon?" Johnny asked her. "What's your name?"  
he repeated.

"...*gasp* Lathika.." she whispered. "...oh, those horrible.  
*cough* things. My father said they could kill...me..." she sobbed softly, with a heavy India accent. Some wetness ran out of both her eyes. Sweat and tears.

"Yeah? Well, this time they didn't." Marco smiled. "Just relax,  
Lathika. You've been given some medication that's ending your allergy attack. You'll feel better soon. The swelling's already going down on your face and neck."

"Is....he right?"...Lathika asked Johnny. "I still can't open my eyes all the way."

"Absolutely.. Now don't move around too much. I got an I.V. started in your arm."

Startled and still very shaky, the girl looked down. "Oh!"

"Shhh, it's ok. It's ok. You're doing fine. You were only out for a little while.." Gage lied. "You've nothing too serious going on. Now we're gonna get you comfortable and to the hospital so the doctors can check you out, all right? You're going to be flown out to them. Ever been on a helicopter before?" he grinned encouragingly while he took her wrist pulse and eyeballed her breathing rate.

"No.. " she gasped.

"Well, it's pretty fun. Noisy, but fun." he told her. Then he slipped into paramedic again. "How's your breathing now? Is that suffocating feeling going away yet? Your voice doesn't sound as hoarse as it did just a few seconds ago."

"I...I think I'm ok..." she coughed wetly. "How's my heart? I've got some problems there. I had rheumatic fever as a child."

Gage and Marco exchanged a flickering glance and both their eyes fell on the EKG screen, but only normal sinus tach was registering. "What kind of problems?" Johnny asked quietly, holding still.

"Father says I've got a murmur. He's a doctor back home in New Dehli."

Gage relaxed. "Oh... ok. Thanks for mentioning that. Lathika,  
your EKG looks pretty good for becoming the one of the first human ballistic pin cushions in the whole entire history of the Colossus County Fair." he joked about the bee attacked coaster accident she had nearly been in.

Lathika laughed weakily. "Where am I?" she whispered hoarsely.

Ivan had returned and he was kneeling by the girl's feet.  
"Still on the highest hill of the roller coaster ride. I'm the one who spotted you blacking out and called the fire department."

"Thank you...sir..uh,.. Mr.." said Lathika shyly, suddenly taken by her new, unexpected attentive guest who was more her own age than the helmeted firemen around her.

"Svenson..But, please, call me Ivan." offered the Swedish accented teenager.

"Thank you, Ivan. For watching out for me. And all of you other men as well. Father will be grateful. And.  
so am I..." she said and then she smiled the whitest smile Johnny and the others had ever seen. No one noticed the hives or any of the swelling at all on her face and were thoroughly dazzled by her emerging exotic beauty.

"No problem.. " they all said, surprisingly effected by the charismatic Khmer girl.

Ivan was tongue tied.

Then Gage took firm charge again. "Lathika, we're gonna get you set up into a stokes. We're gonna carry you up to the chopper hovering at the top of the coaster hill. Just relax and let us do all the work, ok?"

The first frown appeared on her face. "I'm....so cold."

"We'll get you covered up in a second. " Marco said. "There's a blanket right here."

"That'll pass." said Gage. "The epinephrine I gave you made all your blood vessels constrict while making your lung passages dilate.  
It's bound to make you lose some heat. Its what's making your heart beat so fast right now."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that.." said Chet, sotto voce to Gage.  
"Just look at those two love birds."

Ivan and Lathika were locked eye to eye, both grinning, with gently clasped hands. Their eyes were full of the undeniable, heart felt look of love at first sight.

Johnny smacked Kelly. "Go radio the pilot that we're ready for her pickup along with four of these other coaster riders." he said warningly,  
half in a smile. "We'll load her off with the new paramedic on board before we go help Roy out."

"Roger that.." said Chet, still politely admiring the two oblivious teenagers in between them. Kelly rose and helped Marco and Gage lift Lathika into the yellow plastic wrapped nested stokes.

Johnny hurriedly gave Dr. Brackett a second BP and other vital signs along with his news of the nearly complete turn around in the girl.

Then he was busy with Ivan, Marco and Chet, with carrying Lathika's gear loaded stokes into Chopper 11.

Soon, the rest of the roller coaster rescue operation began in earnest.

* * *

Photo : Johnny, Chet, Marco, looking down.

Photo: Johnny with an unconscious girl, pupil check.

Photo: A winningly beautiful Khmer teen girl.

Photo: A shy Swedish teen boy.

Photo: Cap, Roy and Johnny lowering a laden stokes.

*  
From: Sam Iam Date: Wed Oct 27, 2004 11:28 am Subject: Evac

The bee stung girl's complete name was Lathika Senaveratani.

Gage made sure to turn down her I.V. to TKO before the co-pilot took over her head. He helped Johnny load her up onto the rear deck of the hot running H-60. Marco and Kelly each set gloves on Johnny's back as the three of them backed away from the aircraft, crouched down low to avoid the rotor wash. Vocal communication was impossible. So, as the chopper sped up its top blades for liftoff for the parking lot, to let out the first batch of uninjured riders, Gage gave the paramedic on board her, Lathika's treatment plan and care history via HT. Then he took his medical gear back after a transfer to 110's.

"HT 51 to HT 110," said Johnny into the walkie talkie as Chet, he and Marco were bent over while jogging back down the hill towards Roy and his victims. "Her rhythm's stable. I gave her only one dose .5mg epi I.V. 1/10,000 on the way up to you at 15:41. She's chilled somewhat and just a little anxious. You've got a copy of my care notes under her shoulder, wrapped around the I.V. bag. The victim's father is out of the country but,...she may have a new friend she'd like to contact once she's at Rampart . His name's Ivan Svenson." he said. "Do me a favor and hook those two up if you can." he said with a grin at Kelly, who gave Johnny a thumbs up.

"Johnny the match maker. Didn't know you had it in you, Gage." chuckled Chet. "I'm sure Dixie'll learn about this pair of turtle doves on her next shift and who to thank for it.." he yelled over the helicopter's noisy preparations.

Gage just rolled his eyes. "Who am I to argue with true love, Kelly? I just wish that someday, it'll happen to me." he yelled back, smiling huge.

##Chopper 11 to HT 51, paramedic signals message has been received.  
You're clear of my danger zone. Good luck with your other victims.## said Chopper 11's pilot as Lathika's flight took to the air.

Hearing that they were in the clear, Marco, Johnny and Chet began to run back down the hill in a controlled descent along the tracks to the second, still occupied roller coaster near DeSoto.

Gage set down his tank of oxygen with a clang. "Ok, Roy, which one first? Kelly, start putting C collars on all the ones Roy has opened the shirts on." he said. Then he looked up, "Stoker? Any not breathing well?"

"This one." he said about a young teen aged man in yellow with a bald head. "He's worsening. Breathing's Cheyne-Stokes. Carotid's forty two. Roy's already got an intubation order and another for atropine." Mike replied, giving the boy another carefully assisted breath with a demand valve. "He hasn't vomited any more. Last time was two minutes ago and that was only liquid. No food."

"Go to Stoker's teenager!" replied Roy, giving his victim albuterol.

Gage hurried over and eyed the young man's already hanging Ringer's approvingly. "He's perfusing good enough, cardiac wise.  
Ok, let's get him going. Endotrach, Roy?"

"Yeah. Size 7 French. It's on his lap along with the larygoscope."  
DeSoto said. "I got an asthma case here turning around with a poor airway with a palpable deformed alignment at C-5. She's my top priority." and then he was on his HT once again to Dr. Early at Rampart.

"I'll be right with ya.." Johnny said.

Marco had already recruited Ivan to help hustle the uninjured passengers away and to a ladder where climbing teams of firefighters from Truck 99 were ready to show them the way down.

Stoker kept up the boy's ventilations manually as Johnny impatiently waited for Kelly to immobilize the teen's neck. "Man, how am I gonna do this? The impact bars around his shoulders are keep him fully head upright." Gage mumbled.

"You need him flat, sir, to help him?" asked Ivan, running up.

"Yeah, can you do that without jarring their C spines?" Roy asked. "He and the man next to him have bad head injuries."

"Sure, I can. Like this..stand away for a moment." and Ivan set a firm foot on the edge of the coaster car and released a hidden spring. The whole car smoothly angled feet up along a rocking cradle and in seconds, the teen's whole passenger row was "seated" horizontal. "That is how we get the riders out at the loading terminal. Just let me know when you want me to release the shoulder restraint bars. They all lift off at once for every seat on the train."

"Thanks, Ivan." said Johnny and then he and Mike Stoker quickly got the boy airway secured and fully support medicated.

His color improved at once. Johnny left him under Mike's watchful eye and moved to DeSoto's side to help him with the asthma case with the broken neck.

Five minutes later, the three seriously wounded, in stokes, were on the way to the hospital in the belly of Chopper 19 with Roy DeSoto, Johnny Gage and 110's second paramedic aboard.

The rescue helicopter arched its trajectory into the setting sun,  
heading for the Torrance city skyline. ##Chopper 19 to Rampart Base, we've three serious landing at the pad in four minutes.## said the flight commander. ##Three minor are arriving via ambulance in eight.##

All the rescue personnel heard Dr. Brackett and Joe Early's voices in triplicate over radios, headsets and HTs as the doctors acknowledged that they were ready to receive all incoming victims to their emergency ward at Rampart General Hospital.

* * *

Photo: Loading Chopper 19.

Photo: The H-60 helicopter pilot.

Photo: The Colossus roller coaster as viewed from the air with Station 51 and choppers.

Photo: Roy and Johnny Gage putting on life vests inside Chopper 19.  
Photo: Chopper 19, LaCoFD's firehawk helicopter, in the air.

From: "killashandrarey01" Date: Wed Oct 27, 2004 5:05 pm Subject: After Hours..

Rampart remained busy with the Colossus County Fair accident victims until long after sundown. Dr.  
Brackett and Joe Early were so deep in their diagnoses,  
and stabilization surgeries, that they had forgotten about Dixie McCall, still lying sick at home.

* * *

Dixie McCall awoke to a full darkness, broken only by the pale moonlight streaming in through the lacy curtains of her bedroom window. Her bleary fever dry eyes, made out the time on her nightstand clock. 00:38. She tried to move, in a reach for a half full, luke warm water glass, when the sharp belly pain doubled her up making her grab around both knees, in a surge of choking nausea.

"Owww..." she moaned. "Ok, enough's enough.." she grunted, half sobbing. She hugged herself under the blankets in suffering, burning agony. "I give up. I give in.  
I'm going to see a doctor. I promise....Just...just ease up and let me dress." she said to her stomach.

Her belly pain, had moved. It was now pinpointed, in a spot between her right hip bone and her navel.

She frowned, unable to make the significant connection with that new finding. Her mind was too muddled.

Dixie had pulled on pants over her pajama shorts and had snatched up her car keys from the dresser, when the pain toppled her onto the rug.

She lay there, curled in a ball, soundless, as wave after wave of pure agony swept over her. Her bedroom furniture and the moonlit ceiling blurred. "No, not gonna black out. Oh, boy. Kel's never gonna forgive me for trying to wait it out." she cried, leaking tears of misery.

Dixie crawled trembling fingers across the rug until they reached the phone cord trailing from the Victorian receiver on her nightstand. With a jerk, she pulled the phone down from the table. It clattered in a tangle of cord around her head. "...ohhh..hhh..." McCall moaned, dragging the phone and its hand held receiver to her face.

She dialed seven numbers, leaving the phone tipped over sideways, out to the only number she could remember entirely.

A male voice came on the other end of the line, questioning,  
and concerned, when Dixie didn't answer.

Dixie passed out close to the receiver, where her strained breathing could be heard clearly, in fevered distress.

* * *

Photos: None.

*  
From: "wone3" Date: Wed Oct 27, 2004 1:40 pm Subject: The Call out

The number Dixie remembered and dialed was Station 51 and she had been really lucky as the whole station was just returning from a vacant house fire with no injuries to be transported that had occupied all of them for the last hour or so.

Mike Stoker had just pulled the engine in place and raced to pick up the phone beating Captain Stanley to it.

He heard the distressed breathing on the other end and when he tried to get the person to talk, he received no answer from the other end. "Can you please tell me who you are? " he said into the phone.

Suddenly, Johnny realized that they hadn't heard anything about Dixie since being called out for the coaster incident. "Do you think it is her?" he said aloud. "Ask the person if it is Dixie." he said.

Mike called into the phone, "Dixie, Miss McCall is that you?" He heard a quiet groan on the other end.

Roy, who was right beside the receiver heard the groan, too, and grew concerned that it might be Dixie.

Roy called over to the Captain, "Cap, can you call us in a silent alarm for Dixie's place? We should go check it out to be sure. Could you also call over to the hospital? Doctors Brackett and Early will want to know what's going on, we promised to keep them in the loop as they promised us."

Cap reassured them that the docs would be called as he hurried to call the alarm into dispatch. "Dispatch this is Station 51, calling in a silent alarm for squad 51 to 213 Elm Street, Apartment 6."

Dispatch answered, ##10-4 . Squad 51, time out, 00:51.##

Captain answered, "10-4, KMG 365." He went over to the squad with the call slip as the guys were waiting in it. Marco ran over to open the bay door for the squad to exit.

Cap told the guys, "Be careful, but get there quickly. We'll make the call. If you need to take her in, you can stay available from the hospital. Call us once you find out anything though, OK?"

Both Johnny and Roy echoed, "We will, Cap, and thanks." They then sped out of the bay on a speed trip to Dixie's apartment.

* * *

Photos: None.

*  
From: "Jeff Seltun" with "Patti Keiper"  
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 01:26:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Hindsight is NOT Better Than Foresight... )

On the way, with lights and siren running, Roy DeSoto had a thought. "Johnny, do you think we'll need PD for this call? We might freak out a lot of Dixie's neighbors if we force our way into her place without alerting em ahead of time."

Johnny let out a big sigh, crumpling up the address slip.  
"It is the middle of the night, and you know how we need the police for most of our other calls like this. I'll raise em on the horn." said Gage with a nod. He lifted the mic,  
"L.A., this is Squad 51."

##Go ahead, 51.##

"Send out a squad car to our silent alarm's location. We may need official authorization for a break in." he said and then he hung up the microphone head onto its spigot.

##10-4, 51. LAPD says their ETA is fifteen minutes.##

"What?!" Johnny said in exclamation. "That's sheer craziness!  
What if Dixie's condition's serious? We can't wait that long just hanging about outside her patio...." he empathized out loud as he listened to L.A. notifiy a police patrol car about their medical emergency private home entry request.

Roy said. "If we can't see her in the window, that's what we're gonna haveta do, junior. A phone line with a history of heavy breathing doesn't mean a life or death situation."

"But it doesn't negate it either." Gage said, very unhappy,  
as he clunked a jacketted elbow down on the open edge of his passenger window. "You told me you and Stoker definitely heard a groan on that line."

"It IS near Halloween, Johnny."

"Yeah, but why would kids prank call a firehouse? Usually kids think we're really cool and...leave us alone." Gage said.

"I can think of half a dozen crank calls B shift's had over the last two months that started up just like this one."  
Roy just shrugged. "We'll have at least some answers in...." he looked at his watch in the glow of the bar lights reflecting off the squad's hood. "....four minutes....."

"I got a better idea....." Johnny said with a finger snap.

"What?" Roy asked, glancing away from the road.

Johnny picked up the radio mic again.

* * *

Engine 51 roared off the freeway ramp and pulled up behind the squad in front of Dixie's apartment complex. The noise of her arriving Code Three woke up everyone within ear shot to a distance of two hundred yards.

"Is this your idea of a brilliant idea?" DeSoto asked Gage while they wound through the night clothed crowd of people,  
now milling about the pool area, fully loaded with gear.

"Yeah..." Johnny grinned. "Now we have witnesses..."  
"And Cap's just as concerned about that phone call as we are. He's not gonna yell. Not in the slightest."

"You're right about that." Roy considered. "It's not like it's a busy night for firehouse calls. Being available here or at the station's pretty much the same thing I guess."

"Exactly.." Johnny said.

As they neared apartment six, the gang piled out and went immediately to the front entryway to ring the doorbell while Roy and Johnny covered the back patio facing the moonlit pool to see what they could see.

Johnny upped his ante. "Would someone turn on the lights out here? We gotta see what we're doing!" he shouted to the babbling, gossiping crowd of residents around them.

The off hours overhead suddenly kicked on over the party hut at the far end of the pool, lighting their way through the thick palms and bushes surrounding Dixie's patio.

"Thank you!" shouted Roy. Then he mumbled. "Geesh,  
talk about an abundance of bystander help."

Johnny's HT came to life in his jacket pocket. He pulled it out. It was Cap. ##No answer at the front door at the bell or with the knocker. And we've no windows to look inside. How about on your end?##

"Still getting there. I wouldn't say Dixie's a premiere..."  
he grunted as he forced O2 tank and com box through the hedges.." gardening type. It's a sheer jungle over here, but we're getting there." Johnny told Hank.

"She does like her privacy.." Roy grinned.

Gage sighed and finally his shoes reached the concrete slab of her patio. "You know, there's another reason why I used the engine to wake everybody up."

"Why's that?" Roy asked as he, too, fought through the bushes to join his grinning partner on Dixie's back yard landing.

A commotion on the sidewalk of fast stepping slippers got their attention and a thick, hidden ivy covered gate that neither Roy nor Johnny knew was there, suddenly swung open onto the patio where they were, revealing a woman in a robe of quilted pastels with a thick ring of keys in her hand.

"That's why.." Gage pointed at her. "I figured one of these crowd folks just had to be the land lady.." Johnny said, tilting his head. "Dragging out the Ward, too, just bettered our chances in finding her.."

"Will wonders never cease.." Roy sighed with a half smile,  
pulling off his helmet. He quickly explained the situation to the land lady about Dixie McCall.

"Oh, sure.. Here, let me let you in. The poor dear. We all thought she was just tired from saving Gerald Miller. The kids saw her go back inside right after you fellas left."

Johnny was still peeking through the windows, shining his flashlight. He couldn't see anything. "Thanks, Ma'am, for coming. You see, the cops are delayed a bit. And this can't wait."

"No, of course it can't.." said the landlady. "Here you go boys.  
Can I come in? I'll be your entry witness.." she volunteered.

"That's what we had in mind, Ma'am.." Johnny said as the landlady opened the glass patio door with a flick of a long skeleton key.

Roy and Johnny immediately went inside, shouting Dixie's name. The landlady trailed behind and turned on the lights for them.

"She's not in here.." said Roy, leaving the bathroom.  
"Looks like she's been vomiting." he said about an unflushed toilet. "Some diarrhea, too." He flushed it away after Johnny had a look at it.

Johnny let in Cap and the others through the front door and quickly, the gang cased the living room, den,  
the closest bedroom....

Finally, they found her on the carpetting, face down with a phone receiver in her hand, in the farther one.

"Cap, we'll need an ambulance.." Roy said.

"You got it, pal. I'll be right back."

Johnny unwrapped the phone cord from around Dixie's body and hung up the phone into its cradle, setting the whole thing back on the nightstand while DeSoto knelt down, feeling for a carotid. "Dixie? Can you hear me?"

Together, he and Johnny gently rolled her over onto her left side from off of her stomach, supporting her head and neck in a line, carefully, leaving her legs bent up to her stomach as they checked to see if she was breathing. She was, shallowly.

Dixie just moaned at an arm pinch. "Altered level, Johnny.  
Marco," he asked looking up. "..can you get her on some O2?"

"Yeah."

"Make it high flow."

Hank returned after his HT call outside and crouched down, "Can we move her to the bed? It might make it easier for you two to work."

Johnny got done sweeping Dixie's head, neck and back for any blood or misalignment. "Yeah, I'm not finding anything here. She didn't hurt herself falling at least. Her c-spine's clear."

The gang lifted her to the bed with a sheet, leaving the others pulled down. She was placed onto her back and Roy and Johnny piled the gear around her after the O2 was set over her face.

Stoker thought ahead and placed pillows under Dixie's knees to keep them bent, remembering her unexpressed pain from earlier in the afternoon.

Cap began a hail out to Rampart while Johnny loosened Dixie's clothes and pants for breathing's sake and got an initial set of vital signs. "Chet, see if you can wake her past groaning. I don't know why she's not conscious yet. The oxygen should've helped her regain more awareness a full minute ago."

"That's if this is just another syncopal episode." DeSoto said as he got a blood pressure off of her. His expression changed into a more serious frown. "78/52. She's real warm, too."

"Sepsis?" Johnny guessed.

"Maybe. Check her abdomen. You remember what happened to her this afternoon better than I do." DeSoto admitted.

"Not really. She wasn't very revealing." But Johnny checked.  
He found mild rigidity in the lower right quadrant and he heard noisy bowel sounds through his stethoscope.

"Ok." Kelly began talking to McCall loudly. "Come on. Dixie,  
can you open your eyes for me? It's Chet Kelly from Station 51. We got your call ok. Everyone's here. Hey, open those gorgeous peepers of yours and say hello to your house guests. Millie the land lady's here, too. Johnny, hand me your penlight.  
I'll check out her pupils for you."

Gage tossed Chet his light. "What'dya got?"

Kelly reported a finding after a few seconds. "P.e.a.r.l."

"Figures." Johnny huffed in frustration. "Keep at it.  
We'll need her talkin to learn anything more."

"And... she's starting to flinch." Chet continued.

"That's a little better. Just don't kiss her. She may get mad at ya." Johnny said with volume, trying a bad joke to get any kind of a cognitive reaction out of the sick nurse.

"Why not? She's pretty enough.." Kelly quipped,  
going along, equally loud.

Dixie blinked and then she coughed. And then the pain returned, full blown. "Oh, guys. I ..thu you'd nev ...here.."  
she moaned, drawing her knees up even higher than the pillows. "Oh ..gaa ..make it sto-- p p.." she sobbed,  
with the emotions hardly reaching her features as much as it did in her voice.

"Dix?" Johnny asked, "Open your eyes.." he said,  
shaking her. "Tell us what's happening.." he ordered firmly.

She just made a non-sensical noise and shuddered in a fever chill.

Hank got a reply on the biophone. It was Dr. Morton.  
"Stand by, Rampart. I'll pass you off to one of the paramedics now. We've got a thirty two year old female with an acute abdomen, non traumatic." he informed. Then he mouthed the word "Morton" at his men when they looked up from getting a Normal Saline I.V. ready.

Roy took the phone. "Rampart. Our victim's semi-conscious.  
Non responsive to verbal commands. B/P's 78/52, Pulse's 90. Her respirations are 20 and shallow and both pupils are equal and reactive. There's no signs of falling injury but there is evidence of gastric and intestinal upset with a fever. We found mild guarding in her lower right quadrant. She's on fifteen liters of O2."

Morton nodded his head and then he pressed the talk button in the base station. ##Maintain her O2. Start an I.V., 51. Normal Saline. Administer a 250 to 500 cc's bolus and titrate until her pressure's at least 90 or better systolic. Then turn it TKO.  
Conduct a head to toe survey and get a better neurological assessment. Look for any abdominal distension or signs of pulsatile masses. Palpate her flank on the effected side for any CVA tenderness. Also, draw a red top for analysis. She's been vomiting and losing digestive material intestinally, so I'm gonna assume it's been a while since she's eaten anything. Give her some Dextrose at 50%. 25 gms in an I.V. push. Let's hope her stuporous state's due to hypoglycemia and that it isn't septic involvement. 100 mgs Thiamine won't hurt either. In fact, give her some. And get an oral temperature for me if you can, 51. Monitor her on EKG for any altered rhythm. Report back to me in two minutes with any new details. If not, transport her as soon as possible. ##

"10-4, I.V. Normal Saline titrated to the hemodynamic status margin minimum. A red top followed by 25 gms Dex50 I.V,  
and 100 mgs Thiamine. EKG check followed by a condition update and immediate transport."

Millie wanted to know. "What's all that stuff?"

Cap answered, "Salt water and sugar, with one of the B vitamins,  
a heartbeat reading, and then a fast ticket outta here."

"Huh...Whatever happened to the good ol smelling salts and patting the wrists routine? That worked fine in reviving folks awake in my day.." Millie interjected.

Johnny and Roy just smiled.

They got down to business re-examining Dixie for problems visually and by feel and found only a few bruises on her palms from the CPR she had given Ger and a few minor scrapes on her hips from when she dragged the boy out of the pool.

No masses or pulsations were found anywhere in her abdomen beyond the rigidity that was just starting to become apparent.

After they had given her a good once over and had connected Dixie to the heart monitor, they covered her up with a sheet for warmth.

A minute later, following the energizing Thiamine,  
all the sugar and the actively pushed fluid bolus, Dixie finally showed some mental life. Her eyes fluttered open. For good measure, she jerked her hand out of Kelly's concerned one." I heard that joke, you two nutcases. I just couldn't answer.." she growled. "Not yet, anyway. Just how much is all this attention gonna cost me? I've never needed an ambulance before.."

"Hardly anything and ...we're glad you liked it.." Johnny said.  
"And everybody ELSE'S glad that you're conscious. Now you know the routine. Quit griping and answer my questions already."  
Dixie sighed under her O2 mask and lifted her knees a little higher at a particularly viscious pain stab. "Go.."

"What are your symptoms? We already know about the fever, diarrhea and the vomiting."

"Abdominal pain. Surprise!"

Roy and Johnny made a face. Chet just laughed.

"Do you have any allergies?"

"No."

"Are you on any medications or have you taken anything for this?"

"None and no."

"What kind of abdominal history do you have? Anything like a past incarserated hernia, intussuception, cholecystitis, cystitis, duodenal ulcers, diverticulitis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, kidney infections, kidney stones, pancreatitis, pelvic inflammatory disease...."

Dixie just rolled her eyes at the last one.

"Sorry.. And I know you haven't had any kids recently.."

She glared at Gage indignantly.

"..ever.." he amended self consciously, clearing his throat.

Dixie let him off the look-that-could-kill hook.  
"None on all counts, Johnny. All I know is that I hurt.  
Horribly. And I'm so hot I feel like I'm gonna die." she whimpered instead.

"No you're not. Your pressure's sitting at an even 100 now. Up twenty millibars." Roy grinned.

"Speak for yourself. You aren't hurting." she snivelled.

"He could be if you punch him one.." Chet suggested.

"Don't tempt me.." she spat.

Right then, Johnny tested for rebound tenderness over her stomach and found a definite positive finding when she shoved his hand away with a sharp intake of breath and suddenly grew five shades paler. " Uh huh.. And right over McBurney's point, Roy.."

Dixie met both the paramedics' eyes with a blank stare.  
"You've got to be kidding. Appendicitis?" she pegged.

"We don't know that and none of us will. Not until after a battery of testing.." Roy admitted.

"Cap, how long on that ambulance? She's.. VERY.  
stabilized now." Gage asked, putting a bored chin into a hand on an elbow lean.

"Let ME find out for ya, Cap." and Kelly neatly exited the apartment to avoid the storm to come. "I'll....just.. show them the way through darkest Africa out here..." he said.

"My garden's not THAT bad! Oww.." Dixie fired back,  
doubling over when her shouting irritated her side again.

Gage returned to his questioning. "Last oral intake?"

"Uhh,, I don't remember.." she sighed weakily from the pillows.

Roy rubbed his nose. "Morton called her diminished LOC right on the nose. Hypoglycemia.."

"Not him, too...?! Ughh!" Dixie denied. "It's bad enough having Kel and Joe snooping around and finding out about this.." she winced.  
"But to have that beside mannerless automaton knowing about it.."

"Shall I relay that message?" Johnny quirked, holding out the biophone receiver. "He's listening.."

Dixie paled even further.

"No, he's not. I covered the phone when you started up about him. Aren't I nice?" Gage sniffed. "Events leading to your illness?" he continued, scribbling into his note pad.

Dixie sputtered, recovering on all tracks but the physical.  
"Let's see, over work, under pay.." she ticked off on her fingers.. " a tiny head cold and now I've got a big problem with a certain bunch of real pesky firemen.." she blathered.

Johnny ignored her. "When was the onset of your pain?"

Dixie finally got intimated by the proceedings and started answering without bristling. "Started mid line bilaterally around 11 am, right after work, yesterday."

"What provoked it?"

"Moving." she snapped.

"What does it feel like?"

"Awful."

Now it was Roy's turn to roll his eyes.

Now Gage poured on the purest kind of paramedic mule headed cussedness. "Does it radiate anywhere?" he asked through gritted teeth, staying outwardly professional beyond that one anomaly.

"Not anymore. You found the X that marks the spot."

Johnny bit his lip. "How severe is it?"

"Bad."

Cap started chuckling and had to amble away.

"Does anything make it better?" Roy tried when Johnny began boiling.

"Unconsciousness did, Roy, and I got you two to thank for dragging me kicking and screaming out of it." Dixie said quite honestly, ripping off her oxygen mask.  
"Excuse me, I'm going to go puke.." and she started to get up.

Both Johnny and Roy.... and Cap... stopped her by grabbing and laying across her chest, knees and legs. "You're not going anywhere, Dixie! You've lost your right to make a judgement call." Hank thundered.

"Who says?!"

"We all do!" Gage shouted. Then he narrowed his eyes in a challenge. "Let her go, Cap. Roy, you too."  
Reaching over, he shut down Dixie's running I.V. to TKO. "Ok. Prove it."

Dixie eyed Johnny suspiciously. "Prove what?"

"Prove that you're fully medically competent to handle this health matter..." he said firmly stabbing a finger down on the bed sheets in between them. "If you can stand up on your own two feet, without blacking out,"  
he said waggling a finger in her face."...all of us will just pack up.....and we'll leave..."

The silence in the room was palpable.

Dixie's hand snaked over and dialed up the I.V. to a fast gush in the drip chamber.

"Ah, ah ah.." Johnny said, jerking the tubing out of her hand and he redialed it back down to TKO. "Without any outside help or adjunct." he clarified.

Then he pulled her sheets down and invited her to swing her legs over the side of the bed.

Dixie froze like a deer in the headlights.

Then her jaw clamped shut and the insult she was about to hurl died aborning. She yanked the covers back up to her chin and her teeth started to chatter. "You boys make sure neither Kel nor Joe does my surgery.."

Johnny relaxed his finger pointing stare and he planted the abandoned O2 mask that was hissing around her neck to back over her face.

She didn't protest. "Promise me..." she asked of her two hands on hips posturing paramedics.  
"Ok.." Roy shrugged and he turned up her I.V. to a shock fighting level again.

Feeling a bit like the devil, Johnny added, "We'll let Morton do it."

Dixie nearly levitated off the bed.

Right then the elegant Victorian phone on Dixie's nightstand rang.

"Uh oh." trickled Cap.

Johnny picked it up, reluctantly, after it rang six times. "Oh, hiya doc. Uh, what do you mean what am I still doing over here? Uh, that's kind of a long story. You see...."

* * *

Photo : Gang around a Dixie on a bed.

Photo: Chet with a You've got to be kidding look.

Photo: Johnny infuriated.

Photo: Morton casually listening on the landline.

Photo: Roy chewing his nail.

Photo: Cap with Johnny on a Victorian phone.

*  
From : wone3 Sent : Saturday, October 30, 2004 1:55 PM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Kel's Call Kel Brackett had just finished with his last patient from the fairgrounds, stretching and yawning after the long session of patients he had dealt with during this crisis. He checked with the staff to make sure the patient was going to be moved to a room shortly and started to leave the room for the elevators. Joe Early had just finished with his last patient shortly before Kel and was waiting by the elevators for one to arrive when Kel walked up. They engaged in small talk about their patients until the elevator door opened and the bell rang. They both stepped into the elevator with Kel pushing the button for the first floor ER and Joe abruptly changing the subject.

"I wonder how Dixie is doing? Have you heard anything? I haven't and asked Carol if Dixie called to just let me know." Joe asked.

Kel answered him, " I haven't received a call either. I'm hoping that Carol did and we were all too busy to deliver the message. We can check once we return to the floor or call her from my office if she hasn't called in. Dixie has too many symptoms for it to be minor and I'm concerned that she doesn't realize it."

The elevator arrived at their floor, the bell rang as the doors opened and they walked out. They headed straight for the nurse's station. They both saw Mike Morton in base station apparently talking to a paramedic team.

Carol saw both of the doctors arrive and before they could ask the question said, " No, Dixie hasn't called in and Dr. Morton is on with 51's at their silent alarm. I don't remember the address but I think it was an apartment."

Joe asked, "Are we that predictable?"

Carol just rolled her eyes and laughed as she returned to the paperwork before her. Dixie had taught her well about the doctors. Both doctors just laughed as Kel said, "I guess so." They walked back to his office to make the phone call.

Joe followed Kel into his office and shut the door behind him. Kel sat down at the desk and dialed the numbers from memory to Dixie's place. The phone rang and rang. Kel was growing concerned as the number of rings climbed up to 6 and then someone picked up the phone. It was Johnny Gage and that confused and concerned Kel even further.

Kel asked, "What are you doing there?"

Johnny answered with hesitation, "Hi ya doc, what am I doing here? Well it is a long story. You see "

Kel interrupted Johnny, "You mean she finally came to her senses and called for help?"

Johnny answered, "Well sort of, she must have blacked out after she dialed our station number. We couldn't get a response from her over the phone and came over. The landlady let us in and we found her collapsed beside her bed. She got lucky to get us; we had just come back from a house fire that had taken us away from the station for at least an hour. We have been talking to Morton to treat her since then."

Kel could hear Dixie yell from the background "Kel, you and Joe, and I know Joe is with you, aren't going to perform surgery on me when I get there."

Kel acknowledged Johnny by stating he knew because he had checked by the nurse's station before calling. He then asked Johnny to give Dixie the phone and Johnny did. Dixie stated, "Did you hear me Kel?"

Kel interrupted her, "We tried to do things your way, and you haven't gotten better but instead worse. Now it's our turn, and you are going to have to deal with things the way we want to do it. You are the patient and nothing more from here on out until this is finished." He growled at her. Joe tried to get him to calm down in the background. She quietly acquiesced, she knew she had caused too many problems by his time, her fight nearly gone, and her fever-reduced haze was playing tricks on her mind, and handed the phone back to Johnny.

He told Johnny that he'd check with Mike about everything that had been done thus far and asked why they weren't on the way yet. Johnny told the doc that the ambulance wasn't there yet and was delayed a while, once it was there they were more than ready to go. Kel acknowledged it and told the paramedic that he'd see him once they got here and hung up. He went to find Mike Morton.

Just as Johnny hung up the phone, Dixie's eyes rolled back and she blacked out dissolving into unconsciousness once again.

* * *

Photo: None.

***************************************************** From: "patti keiper" Date: Sun Oct 31, 2004 7:17 pm Subject: Here's to Jack O Lanterns and Internal Organs..

Johnny Gage noticed, "Dixie? Hey--" and he reached out to touch her chin when Roy DeSoto stopped him.

"Why don't we let her be, Johnny?" he smiled. "Looks like she's finally given in to that long rest her body's been demanding that she'd better have. She's comfortable enough and breathing fine on her side just as she is without us messing around with an oral airway. We'd be disturbing her if we did any further monkeying."

"But--" he bit his lip, considering, and checking a sudden retort.  
"Ok, convince me. What's her pressure now?" checking McCall's pupils again in a search for how far down she'd gone.

"116/72.." he said pointedly amused. "The I.V.'s HAS done its work. And see? On the monitor...." Roy invited with an eye glance.

Johnny studied Dixie's tracing EKG reading on the scope and his critical analyzing frown slowly turned into a light smile. "Sinus rhythm... finally." he sighed.

"Yeah, her rate's about 58." Roy agreed. "Not stressed any longer at all.."

"Now that's what I call sleeping.." Kelly remarked.

"Chet, what would you know?" Gage commented. "You're not a paramedic like us." The irritation on giving into his partner's low impact patient care plan was still festering a bit under the skin. He liked his victims awake and talking when they didn't have vitals that disfavored maintaining that status.

"No, but I know good vital signs notes when I hear him." he said, unoffended. "I got the smarts when I need em, Don't you worry yourself about that, pally." he said, winking at Roy to let him know he was in a needle Johnny Gage mode again now that all the excitement was over.

Gage rapidly starting cleaning up and tidying while Roy readied Dixie's apparatus for gurney loading. "No, you're definitely pumpkin positive, Chet..." he mumbled.

"What? I didn't quite hear ya, Johnny? What the heck's pumpkin positive mean?" he grinned, giving motions of a gimme more gesture behind Gage's back where the dark haired paramedic couldn't see it.

The gang just folded arms together to watch the verbal tennis match with the same grins on their faces.

And Johnny walked right into the baiting, hook, line and sinker. "If a doctor writes 'Pumpkin Positive' on your notes, Chet, they mean if they shine a penlight into your mouth, they would encounter a brain so small that your whole head would light up."

"Oh, uh huh." Kelly said, mildly, completely unruffled. "Gee, that's really interesting, Gage. But what IQ scale fits your place at the shallow end of the gene pool?  
You didn't even see that Dixie's just snoozing right now until Roy here, pointed it out to you."

"Chet---"

"Ok, enough's enough." Cap intervened, chuckling. "If you two carry on in here much longer, you just might DO what Roy says not to do and you'll wake her up. You guys can go play debate team after the call's over. Come on, Kelly. Back to the engine. Stoker and Marco are already waiting for ya. "

"But--"

"But nothin, I'm only lagging behind because I wanna make sure that Dixie's place get's locked up again once the PD gets here. You know my signature's needed on the house entry form. "

"That's all right, sir. I can take care of that.." said Millie the land lady..

Cap blinked and her comment didn't register under the hard thinking and discipling he was still embarking upon. " I'll take the squad in so Roy and John can fuss over her at much as they'd like on the way in. Now, shoo.." Hank said, jerking up his chin in a firm, I'm the captain look.

"Cappp..." Chet whined. "Are you gonna let Johnny keep picking on me?" he said in jest.

"No, I'm gonna let YOU take a time out on HIM. That wasn't a request, Kelly.."

"No, it was an order, I know.. I know." and he trudged out the door, putting on his helmet again over his smoky curls. "Why spoil my fun? I was just trying to lighten the tense mood radiating out from a certain someone still leaning over the bed. And Dixie hasn't been disturbed. She hasn't moved since Roy tipped her head back."

"Go.." Cap pointed, his stenorous baritone cracking out.

"Yes, sir.." Kelly said automatically at the undeniable tone of command. He snapped his fingers in self chiding annoyance when he realized that he was still so well conditioned, that he actually jumped to attention at it.

"Weellll, maybe there's a few seeds in the jack o lantern after all." Gage shot back after him. "You understood that ok.."

All the firemen raised their heads when the sound of the Mayfair responding to their rescue call appeared and finally pulled up just outside.

"Gage, zip it." Cap coughed, trying to hide a smile.  
"You're falling behind. DeSoto's got the I.V. box already put back together and the attendants are only seconds away."

Millie rubbed her chin. "I guess all the acid banter means that Dixie's really ok?" she asked with a knowing smile.

"It sure does.." Roy said, standing up from one last check on Dixie's respirations. "I'll leave a note with her about your involvement in resecuring the apartment.  
The policeman coming is just a formality. Cap's only got a few lines to fill out on the officer's report."

"All right. Thank you, gentlemen, for helping Dixie like you have. It really was sitting in the back of my mind, that something wasn't right. I was just too timid to inquire and intrude, you know?"

"Yeah, we know." Johnny said. "It's a trait of being American, that respect for any individual's home privacy. No harm's done, ma'am."

"Thank goodness."

-  
"Dixie..

Dixie.. Can you hear me? Look what I brought..." said firm but quiet male voice.

Dixie opened her eyes and peered around a flowing oxygen mask.

And saw a grotesque swollen pink and purple worm, floating in a jar of preserving fluid..

"GahHH!" she jerked, throwing her hands up. "Get that thing away from me." and she immediately winced when stitches,  
external and internal, snagged on her innards. "Ooo.."

"What? It's not a prop from the little shop of horrors, Dixie." said Joe Early with a chuckle. "This was part of you fifteen minutes ago."

"I know what it is, Joe. It's just so... yyuck.." she shuddered, coughing up a plume of anesthetic gas from her chest as she got a radar on how truly awake she was becoming. Her nursing side finally got the better of her. "Ok, so what did ya find?" she gave in.

Kel Brackett, to Joe's left, also seated on the bed, answered her.  
"Well, your appendicitis was uncomplicated. We found no fecaliths, lymph node involvements, or any signs of appendiceal perforation. You just had some moderate suprefaction of the mesentery that didn't effect the peritoneum. We did a WBC and a flat plate, which was negative along with a UA for blood which came completely clear of red cells.  
Your kidneys,..are fine."

Dixie blinked, still very groggy. "Would you explain that in plain english? I think I'm still a little hollow in the head right now."

"Rest, Dix." Kel said, getting up. "We'll just leave your souvenir on the bedstand for you to analyze later."

"Don't forget to use a pillow on your abdomen when you have to cough up some of that phlegm. And yes, we made sure the incision was made below the bikini line." Joe added.

"You're all heart." she grumbled, rolling over to sleep some more. "And if I hear one crack about the mickey mouse shaped beauty mark I know you saw down there coming from the nursing staff,  
I'll personally feed you both half of my appendix floating around in that specimen jar."

"She's awake, Kel. I think we can leave now. No one who's too sleepy to breathe ever musters up a threat."

"You're right, Joe. Sweet dreams, Dix, and get better fast.."

The only reply was a blissful mumble followed by a rub of a few fingers on her nose.

The two Rampart doctors left the recovery room on scrub paper covered shoes, gingerly.

FIN

* * *

Photo : Kel Morton looking down to treat someone.

Photo: Joe Early in a suit and Kel in scrubs, talking.

Photo: Appendix surgery in progress.

Photo: A removed infected appendix specimen.

Photo: Dixie, Johnny, Roy and Joe Early around a vending machine.

*  
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